In its judgment in the case of ROI Land Investments, C-604/20, rendered on 20 October 2022, the CJEU discussed two key features of the employment protection mechanisms of the Brussels I bis Regulation.
Firstly the Court clarified who is to be considered an employer by holding that the employer is not necessarily the entity that formally concluded the employment contract with the employee. Secondly, the CJEU held that the Regulation’s rules on jurisdiction over defendants domiciled outside the EU are mandatory and exclusive. More favourable national jurisdictional rules for the employee do not trump the rules of the Brussels I bis Regulation.
Legal BackgroundEmployment contracts are subject to special jurisdiction rules in the Brussels I bis Regulation in order to protect the employee as being the typically weaker party. The employment protection mechanisms of the Regulation give an employee more forum shopping opportunities than an employer as well as limit the possibility to include forum selection clauses in employment contracts. Also, the special jurisdictional rule that gives the employee a chance to initiate proceedings in the member state where he or she habitually carries out work is one of the extraordinary rules of the Regulation that applies regardless of whether the defendant is domiciled in an EU member state or elsewhere.
FactsIn November 2016, a German labour court held that the termination of an employment contract between a German employee and a Swiss company was unlawful. According to the judgment, the employer should pay the former employee outstanding remuneration amounting to 442 500 USD. Shortly after the judgment, the Swiss company went bankrupt.
As the former employee had not received the outstanding remuneration from the Swiss company, he filed a lawsuit against the Canadian parent company, ROI Land Investments, on the grounds of a “patron agreement”. In the patron agreement, the Canadian parent company had assured liability for the obligations of the Swiss subsidiary. In addition to the patron agreement, the employee had actually initially been hired directly by the Canadian parent company before his employment contract was transferred to the Swiss subsidiary.
When suing the Canadian company in German courts, issues of how the patron agreement was to be characterized under the Brussels I bis Regulation arose. The former employee argued that German courts should have jurisdiction under the Brussels I bis Regulation’s rules on either employment contracts or the rules on consumer contracts. Whereas the court of first instance concluded that there was German jurisdiction, the court of appeal came to a contrary conclusion even if the patron agreement was characterized as a consumer contract.
In its request for a preliminary ruling from the CJEU, the German Supreme Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht) presented a third way of characterizing the patron agreement by noting that it under German law, it would be considered a surety bond (Bürgschaft). On the other hand, the Bundesarbeitsgericht noted that no employment contract would have been made without the patron agreement from the Canadian parent company. In essence, the main legal issues can be summarized as regarding whether the patron agreement should be characterized as an employment contract and if the jurisdictional rules of the Brussels I bis Regulation must be applied in relation to a defendant domiciled outside the EU.
Who is an Employer?The first question that the CJEU interpreted in its judgment was whether the patron agreement could consitute an employment relation that triggers the special jursidictional rules for such contracts found in section 5 of the regulation. In the case at hand, the answer to that question boiled down to whether the Canadian mother company could be seen as an “employer”.
Previously, the CJEU has ruled on the employee notion under the Brussels I bis Regulation. First, in Holterman Ferho Exploitate, C-47/14, the Court held that also a CEO could be considered an employee if he “for a certain period of time performed services for and under the direction of that company in return for which he received remuneration”. According to the CJEU, the subordination prerequisite (“for and under the direction of that company”), could be met also for persons in management positions as long as their ability to influence the actual governing body of the employer corporation is “not negligible” (Holterman Ferho Exploitate, p. 47).
A few years after the Holterman Ferho Exploitate judgment, the CJEU was given an opportunity to develop what was meant by a not negligible influence under the equivalent rules in the Lugano II Convention in Bosworth and Hurley, C-603/17. Here, the CJEU held that even if the shareholders of the employer company have the power to terminate the contract for a CEO, the CEO is not to be considered an employee if “that person is able to determine or does determine the terms of that contract and has control and autonomy over the day-to-day operation of that company’s business and the performance of his own duties”.
ROI Land Investments, completes the notion of employment relation under EU private international law by clarifying that not only the formal employer, but also the actual employer may be sought under the special jurisdictional rules for employment contracts. Both the court and the Advocate General came to the same conclusion in this part, but their arguments differ. Advocate General Jean Richard de la Tour proposed in his opinion, which is not yet available in English, that a third party who was directly benefitting from the work performed by the employee (“un intérêt direct à la bonne exécution dudit contrat”) should be considered an employer. In practice, the Advocate General’s and the Court’s solutions are probably not very different, but from a system-logical perspective, it is satisfactory that the Court sticks to the existing employee notion instead of inventing a new prerequiste. Now, the chosen employer notion mirrors the employee notion by focusing on the subordination relation.
According to the judgment, a patron agreement is not not necessarily in itself enough to stretch the employer notion (p. 33). To assess actual subordination between the presumptive employer and the employee, a national court must look into the employment history and, if there is e.g. a patron agreement, consider what that has meant for the employment relation (p. 35). In the case at hand, the patron agreement was a presumption for the entrance of the employment contract. Such a situation indicates that there is an employment relation.
Must the Jurisdictional Rules Apply when the Defendant is Domiciled Outside the EU?Regarding the application of the Brussels I bis Regulation in relation to a defendant domiciled outside the EU, the CJEU noted that the clear exceptions in Article 6 trump national jurisdictional rules. As the rule in Article 21 p. 2 stating that an employee may initiate proceedings in the Member State where he or she habitually works is one of those, it shall be applied in the member states regardless of whether national rules would have been more favourable to the employee.
Consumer Contract?As there had also been doubts in the national procedure if the patron agreement could be characterized as a consumer contract, the CJEU ruled also over this issue. Just in line with the wording of the consumer notion in Article 17 of the Brussels I bis Regulation, the court held that a prerequisite is that the contract is entered for purposes outside someone’s trade or profession. The court stressed that this is not only applicable for self-employed business owners, but also for employees (p. 55). According to the court, a patron agreement entered into between an employee and a third party not mentioned in the formal employment contract, cannot be considered to be outside the employee’s profession.
ConclusionIn a world where complex employment contract relations are common, the judgment may possibly hinder bad faith international outsourcing by giving employees the chance to claim liability from the actual employer. Still, the very special circumstances in the case make it a little hard to generalize how far the employer notion can be drawn in the future.
Pour la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne, la qualification de médicament par fonction peut s’appuyer sur des preuves scientifiques concernant non pas la substance active du produit lui-même, mais un analogue structurel, et suppose que ce produit possède des effets bénéfiques concrets sur la santé humaine.
Sur la boutique Dalloz Code de la santé publique 2022, annoté commenté en ligne Droit de la santé 2019/2020 Voir la boutique DallozThe fourth issue of RabelsZ 2022 has just been released. It contains the following articles:
Moritz Renner / Torsten Kindt: Internationales Gesellschaftsrecht und Investitionsschutzrecht, pp. 787–840, DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2022-0078
Conflict of Corporate Laws and International Investment Law. – The withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU has revived the debate on the conflict of corporate laws. Much attention has recently been given to the new generation of EU free trade agreements, such as the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, but their impact on conflicts in the field of corporate law remains unclear. This article proposes that the conflict-of-law effects of these agreements can be fully understood only in the light of their common background in international investment law. Building upon an analysis of the role of treaties in Germany’s conflict-of-law system and of the multiple intersections between the conflict of corporate laws and international investment law in general, the article demonstrates that the newest EU free trade agreements imply in particular the application of a restricted conflict-of-law theory of incorporation on foreign corporations originating from the respective signatory states. While the agreements’ effects on conflicts in the corporate law arena are not as far reaching as those of the EU’s freedom of establishment, they nevertheless further narrow the remaining scope of application of the traditional seat theory underlying Germany’s autonomous rules on conflicts vis-à-vis corporate law.
Tobias Lutzi / Felix M. Wilke: Brüssel Ia extendenda est? – Zur Zukunft der internationalen Zuständigkeit deutscher Gerichte in Zivil- und Handelssachen nach Ausweitung der EuGVVO, pp. 841–875, DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2022-0079
Brussels I bis extendenda est? On the Future of the International Jurisdiction of German Courts in Civil and Commercial Matters after an Extension of the Regulation. – With the expiry of the deadline of art. 79 Brussels I bis, the academic debate on a possible further extension of the Regulation to situations involving non-EU defendants is (again) gaining momentum. The present study aims to contribute to this discussion. It compares the relevant German rules on international jurisdiction over non-EU defendants with those of the Brussels I bis Regulation in order to be able to assess the consequences of a possible extension from a German perspective. The study reveals that even replacing the national rules in their entirety would not amount to a radical change. In particular, the addition of typified places of performance under art. 7 no. 1 lit. b Brussels I bis to the forum contractus and the availability of a common forum for joint defendants under art. 8 no. 1 Brussels I bis would constitute welcome improvements of the current framework. The loss of jurisdiction based on the presence of assets under § 23 ZPO would arguably be a disadvantage if not properly compensated for, e.g. through a forum necessitatis provision. The biggest advantage, though, would most likely be the harmonization of the law of international jurisdiction across the EU – which, from a German perspective, would come at a rather reasonable price.
Ulla Liukkunen: Decent Work and Private International Law, pp. 876–904, DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2022-0080 [Open Access]
This article examines the decent work objective set by the ILO and UN Agenda 2030 from the point of view of private international law. It conceptualizes decent work, arguing that inclusivity of protective safeguards and structures in cross-border situations is essential to achieving the objective, and that the need for inclusivity draws attention to the relationship between labour law and private international law. The analysis offered also introduces a migration law-related perspective on decent work and the private international law of employment contracts and labour relations more generally. It is argued that understanding that the idea of inclusivity is embedded in the decent work objective brings up a global dimension which calls for uniform regulatory solutions at the international level. Decent work could be coupled relatively easily with the need for a revival of the private international law of labour relations and for developing a labour rights-based approach in private international law. It also connects private international law’s protective normative frameworks to the body of international labour standards.
Adrian Hemler: Virtuelle Verfahrensteilnahme aus dem Ausland und Souveränität des fremden Aufenthaltsstaats – Zugleich ein Beitrag zum Verhältnis des Völkerrechts zum Kollisionsrecht, pp. 905–934, DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2022-0081
Virtual Participation in Court Proceedings from Abroad and Its Effects on the Sovereignty of the Foreign State of Residence – With Consideration of the Relationship Between Public International Law and the Conflict of Laws. – Most German-speaking scholars and some German courts consider participation in virtual court proceedings from a foreign state of residence to be a violation of foreign sovereignty. This essay stakes out a contrary position. In reaching this conclusion, it focuses on the distinction between the exercise of state power abroad and the exercise of state power regarding foreign facts. Especially with regards to extraterritorial legislation, it is argued that the law’s scope of sovereign validity remains territorial even if its scope of application covers facts abroad. The discussion also shows how this distinction is equally applicable to court judgments that concern foreign elements. Furthermore, the article discusses the nature of public international law principles regarding extraterritorial legislation and their relationship to national conflict of laws provisions. Also considered is how the sovereignty principle ought to be understood in cyberspace. Having established this theoretical foundation, it is concluded that regardless of the procedural role of the respective party, participation in virtual court proceedings from a foreign state of residence does not amount to a violation of foreign sovereignty.
Corinna Coupette / Dirk Hartung: Rechtsstrukturvergleichung, pp. 935–975, DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2022-0082 [Open Access]
Structural Comparative Law. – Structural comparative law explores the similarities and differences between the structures of legal systems. Theoretically grounded in systems theory and complexity science, it models legal systems as networks of documents, organizations, and individuals. Using methods from network analysis, structural comparative law measures these networks, assesses how they change over time, and draws quantitative comparisons between multiple legal systems. It differs from other approaches in its assumptions, its methods, and its goals, in that it acknowledges the relevance of dependencies between system entities and borrows more heavily from data science than from econometrics. Structural comparative law constitutes a novel addition to the comparatist’s toolbox, and it opens myriad opportunities for further research at the intersection of comparative law and data science.
Arseny Shevelev / Georgy Shevelev: Proprietary Status of the Whole Body of a Living Person, pp. 976–997, DOI: 10.1628/rabelsz-2022-0083
This article is a reaction to the growing economic significance of the living human body as well as its legal status. In this paper, we argue that ownership in the human body most effectively guarantees the autonomy of the human will as to the use and disposal of one’s own body, but classical ownership theory is unable to fully ensure the autonomy of the human will, since it risks reviving the institution of slavery. We will demonstrate that theories establishing rights to the body other than ownership rights are limited in content and are inherently inconsistent. At the end of the article, we will propose an abstract ownership theory that allows for the exercise of maximum freedom to dispose of the human body while one is alive and which will be devoid of the flaws of the preceding theories.
The infamous Wirecard scandal, which involved a German public limited company (AG) reporting non-existing assets and earnings to the tune of several billions of euros, has triggered a wave of litigation not only in Germany, but in several countries.
FactsOne such action was brought in an Austrian court by an Austrian investor against the German auditor of Wirecard AG. Simultaneously, he sued a member of Wirecard’s supervisory board domiciled in Austria (the Aufsichtsrat in the two-tier system of German corporate law). This happened to be the only member of the supervisory board living in the court’s district; the action did not include any other of the board members, who lived elsewhere.
IssueAbsent any other connection to Austria, it was disputed whether the Austrian court had jurisdiction over the German auditor of Wirecard on the basis of Article 8(1) of the Brussels I bis Regulation, which allows to combine several actions in one court. This presupposes that “the claims are so closely connected that it is expedient to hear and determine them together to avoid the risk of irreconcilable judgments”.
HoldingThe Austrian Supreme Court (OGH) held that the conditions of Article 8(1) of the Brussels I bis Regulation were met, and that consequently the Austrian court had jurisdiction over both the member of Wirecard’s supervisory board and the German auditor.
RationaleThe OGH underlines that the damage suffered by the claimant was allegedly caused through violations of duties by both defendants. It also stresses that the same remedy is sought against both of them.
In the eyes of the OGH, the fact that both actions are based on very different legal foundations would not matter. In this respect, the OGH refers to the CJEU‘s decision in Freeport, where the Court ruled that Article 8(1) of the Brussels I bis Regulation allows bringing two claims with different legal bases in the same forum (id., para 47).
The auditor alleged that the claimant had artificially created a situation to fulfil the conditions for the applicability of Article 8(1) and that the court should therefore reject the provision’s application in line with CJEU, Cartel Damage Claims (CDC) Hydrogen Peroxide, paras 32–33. However, the OGH held that the defendant did not provide any evidence for such fraus legis, and therefore considered Article 8(1) to apply.
AssessmentThe decision stretches Article 8(1) of the Brussels I bis Regulation way beyond its limits.
The two actions barely had any connection with each other. The auditor and the supervisory board are not only entirely independent of each other and have very different relationships with the Wirecard AG and the claimant, they also have entirely different duties: While the auditor is required to provide a report about the financial situation of the client, the board has a duty to supervise the board of directors. The auditor’s report helps it in the exercise of this function and provides factual data for it. While it is true that both the auditor and the supervisory board must check the financial condition of the company, the supervisory board can generally rely on the auditor’s work and only has to check its overall soundness and consistency; on the other hand, it must also take into account other information than the report provided by the auditor. The court could thus come to the conclusion that the auditor is liable, but the supervisory board not, or vice versa. There is thus no danger of irreconcilable judgments, as required by Article 8(1).
Even more worrying is that the OGH closes its eyes to the claimant’s manipulation to fulfil the conditions of the provision. That the OGH requires concrete evidence from the claimant seems overly demanding; the facts already known speak for themselves. The action was directed against the only board member that was domiciled in Austria, and not against any other. Bringing this action was thus quite obviously nothing more than a thinly veiled scheme to drag the German auditor into an Austrian court. Nevertheless, the OGH chooses to ignore this reality and even refuses to submit a preliminary question to the CJEU as the Austrian court’s jurisdiction seems so clear.
The decision is an extreme example but may be illustrative of similar developments in other Member States. It is to be feared that Article 8(1) of the Brussels I bis Regulation may be abused for more schemes to create artificial bases of jurisdiction where none exists. The CJEU must close this door to such manipulations by making the conditions of the provision and the requirements for their disproof more explicit.
Par un arrêt important rendu en grande chambre le 20 septembre 2022, la Cour de justice de l’Union européenne a jugé que le droit de l’Union s’oppose à des mesures prévoyant à titre préventif, aux fins de la lutte contre les infractions d’abus de marché dont font partie les opérations d’initiés, une conservation généralisée et indifférenciée des données de trafic pendant un an à compter du jour de l’enregistrement. Partant, les preuves collectées par les enquêteurs de l’AMF en vertu des articles L. 621-10 du code monétaire et financier et L. 31-4 du code des postes et des communications sont illicites, mais pourraient malgré tout être utilisées dans les procédures en cours.
Sur la boutique Dalloz Code monétaire et financier 2022, annoté et commenté Droit financier Voir la boutique DallozThe Sydney Centre for International Law is hosting a ‘Works in Progress (WIP) Conference and a student writing competition in association with its annual International Year in Review Conference.
WIP proposals are due by 1 November 2022, and the student writing submissions are due by 9 January 2023. The first place prize in the writing competition is $1000 and an offer of publication.
Questions should be directed to:
For more, see https://law-events.sydney.edu.au/events/scil_yearinreview
Symeon Symeonides (Alex L. Parks Distinguished Professor of Law at Willamette University – College of Law) has made available on SSRN a draft of his paper on Choice of Law in Torts Arising from Infringement of Personality Rights that is being published in the 6th issue of the Revue de droit des affaires internationales/ International Business Law Journal.
The abstract of the article reads as follows:
This Article is a contribution to a conference held at the University of Paris-V on the localization of injuries in international or multistate torts, including those arising from cross-border infringements of personality rights, such as defamation or invasion of privacy.
The Article necessarily takes for granted the European Union’s rules on jurisdiction and choice-of-law and proposes a new choice-of-law rule for infringement of personality conflicts, which were excluded from the scope of the Rome II Regulation of 2007.
The proposed rule would amend Article 7 of Rome II, which at present covers only environmental torts. The amendment would reverse the starting point of the choice-of-law process by making the lex loci commissi the default rule, calling for the application of the law of the state of the injurious conduct or omission. However, the amendment would also authorize the application of the law of the state of the resulting injury (lex loci damni) if: (a) the occurrence in that state was objectively foreseeable, and (b) the claimant formally and timely requests the application of that law.
The paper focuses particularly on infringements committed through the internet. These are seen as difficult because of the ubiquity and borderlessness of the internet and a number of additional factors, which include considerable differences among various countries substantive law, jurisdiction, and choice of law.
Symeonides is arguing that in the localization of damage in cross-border torts concerning infringement of personality rights the localization of the injury should not be the only determinative factor in choice-of-law decisions in these conflicts. According to the author a number of additional factors besides the locus of the injury should guide these decisions. These are the place of the injurious conduct, the parties’ domiciles, the place of their relationship if any, and the content of the laws of each contact state (for more sophisticated enquiries). Several objections can be raised against these additional factors given that they cannot be easily compressed into simple black-letter rules that would be in line with the aim of the Rome II to deliver legal certainty and predictability in the EU. The author discusses them in relation to each additional factor. However, the approach followed by Article 7 Rome II for environmental damages may present the legislator with this possibility given that several EU Member States follow it for choice-of-law rules concerning infringement of personality rights giving the victim the possibility to choose between two to four applicable laws. For the time being, Rome II expressly excluded from its scope non-contractual obligations arising out of “violations of privacy and rights relating to personality, including defamation” (Article 1(2) letter (g) Rome II).
The last part of the paper provides suggestion for replacing the present wording of Article 7 Rome II with a provision that would be broader and would cover cross-border torts such as human rights violations, infringement of personality rights as well as all other torts not covered by special provisions of Rome II.
Le 13 octobre 2022, la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme a jugé que la peine d’emprisonnement avec sursis infligée à une militante Femen ayant manifesté, poitrine dénudée, dans une église pour défendre le droit à l’avortement constitue une violation de l’article 10 de la Convention.
Sur la boutique Dalloz Code pénal 2023, annoté Voir la boutique DallozAs previously reported on conflictoflaws (inter alia), on 1 December 2020, the Grand Chamber of the CJEU ruled in the FNV/Van Den Bosch case. It ruled that the highly mobile labour activities in the road transport sector fall within the scope the Posting of Workers Directive (C-815/18; see also the conclusion of AG Bobek). As regards to the specific circumstances to which the directive applies, the CJEU sees merit in the principle of the ‘sufficient connection’. To establish sufficient connection between the place of performance of the work and a Member State’s territory, ‘an overall assessment of all the factors that characterise the activity of the worker concerned is carried out.’ (CJEU at [43]).
With this guidance at hand, on 14 October 2022, the Supreme Courts of the Netherlands has ruled on the initial cassation claim, which had led to the questions for preliminary rulings (see also the conclusion of AG Drijber). The Dutch Supreme Court had referred the assessment of the ‘sufficient connection’ on the facts of the case back to the lower courts.
Although the Dutch Supreme Court’s ruling is not surprising, the eventual application the CJEU’s preliminary ruling to the facts of this dispute (and its further follow-up in lower courts) might still provide food for thought for companies in the transnational transport sector, which use similar business models.
On Tuesday, November 1, 2022, the Hamburg Max Planck Institute will host its 27th monthly virtual workshop Current Research in Private International Law at 5:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. (CET). Symeon C. Symeonides (Willamette University College of Law) will speak, in English, about the topic
Infringement of personality rights via the internet: Jurisdiction and applicable lawConflicts of laws arising from infringement of personality rights have always been difficult, if only because they implicate conflicting societal values, such as freedom of speech and access to information, on the one hand, and protection of reputation and privacy, on the other hand. The ubiquity of the internet has dramatically increased the frequency and intensity of these conflicts. The speaker will present a proposed international model law that aspires to facilitate the resolution of these conflicts in a practical, efficient, and balanced way.
The presentation will be followed by open discussion. All are welcome. More information and sign-up here.
If you want to be invited to these events in the future, please write to veranstaltungen@mpipriv.de.
The University of Milan, on behalf of the DIGinLaw consortium (also comprising Josip Juraj Strossmayer, the University of Osijek, the University of Aberdeen, and the University of Zagreb – University Computing Centre (SRCE)), is organising an International Conference on ‘Law in the Age of Modern Technologies’, hosted in Milan on 10 February 2023.
Digitalization strongly affects society, science, and the transfer of knowledge. While taking advantage of modern technologies, the DIGinLaw Project aims to raise awareness of digital demands in higher education and research in law and fosters the creation of digital literacy and digital competence that is needed in the law labour market. The Project aims to create an open and inclusive society of legal knowledge and to open access to the scientific areas dealing with the effects of digitalization on law and legal education.
The Conference is the culmination of scientific research on the digitalization of legal education and the digitalization of law. It provides a venue for the presentation and discussion of scientific research focusing on such and related themes. For these purposes, the Organizing Committee is pleased to invite (i) abstract submissions that address specific aspects of the impact of modern technologies on the law, and (ii) abstracts focusing on the digital transformation processes in the legal domain and welcomes the participation of a prosperous community crossing different disciplines beside law, including computer science and legal informatics.
Abstract Submission
Abstracts of 250-500 words (max) should specify the main arguments, the structure of the paper, and the methodology. If the proposal is accepted, authors will be expected to deliver a full paper of no more than 15.000 words (footnotes included) by 28 February 2023. Depending on the topics, the selected papers will be published in a peer-reviewed international journal or in a particular volume by an international publisher.
Deadlines
Submission deadline for abstracts: 15 November 2022
Notification of acceptance of abstracts: 25 November 2022
Submission deadline for papers: 28 February 2023
The Conference is organized within the framework of the project ‘Time to Become Digital in Law’ (DIGinLaw), co-funded by Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. Additional information on the event is available here.
Luís de Lima Pinheiro (University of Lisbon) has posted The Spatial Reach of Injunctions for Privacy and Personal Data Protection on the Internet Revisited on SSRN.
The abstract reads:
This study deals with the spatial reach of injunctions addressed to online intermediaries for removal, blocking or delisting of content for the protection of the right of privacy, including data protection. It complements a previous essay published in Ius Vivum: Kunst – Internationales – Persönlichkeit. Festschrift für Haimo Schack zum 70. Geburtstag, summarizing its conclusions, providing the clarification of some issues and adding further comments.
It is advocated that while the limits set by Public International Law to the jurisdiction of the States must be taken into account, the spatial reach of these injunctions should be mainly determined through a Private International Law approach, based upon a substantive characterization of the issue.
EFFORTS (Towards more EFfective enFORcemenT of claimS in civil and commercial matters within the EU) is an EU-funded Project conducted by the University of Milan (coord.), the Max Planck Institute Luxembourg for Procedural Law, the University of Heidelberg, the Free University of Brussels, the University of Zagreb, and the University of Vilnius.
The tenth EFFORTS Newsletter has just been released, giving access to up-to-date information about the Project, save-the-dates on forthcoming events, conferences and webinars, and news from the area of international and comparative civil procedural law.
Finally, regular updates are available via the Project website and the Project’s LinkedIn and Facebook pages.
Społeczna Inicjatywa Narkopolityki – SIN (Civil Society Drug Policy Initiative) is a A Polish association that conducts educational activities on the consequences of drugs use. In 2018 SIN’s Facebook and Instagram accounts were removed as “in violation of Community Standards”.
In May 2019 SIN filed a lawsuit against Facebook (namely, Facebook Ireland Limited seated in Ireland, which later changed its name to Metaplatforms Ireland Limited) demanding inter alia restoration of the removed accounts, as well as granting interim measures in that respect.
The case, which is still pending before Polish courts, has interesting private international law aspects.
JurisdictionIn its decision of June 2019 Sąd Okręgowy w Warszawie (Regional Court in Warsaw) granted interim measures by ordering Facebook to restore and stop blocking / removing SIN’ accounts while the case is pending. Facebook appealed the decision. It was upheld by the decision of May 2021.
In the decision on interim measures of June 2019, the Court discussed the existence of its jurisdiction as to the merits of the case. The Court referred to Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation and the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU in eDate case (C-509/09) and explained that
Although the present case does not concern infringement of personal rights by posting infringing content online, but – infringement of personal rights by removing content from the internet, the existance of the jurisdiction of the Polish court based on Article 7(2) is justified by the following reasons.
Both parties have their seats in EU Member States, the claimant conducts its business activity in Poland, thus the center of its interests lies within the jurisdiction of this Court. The widespread availability of content posted online means that this content is also available at the claimant’s center of interest. Moreover, the claimant directs the content to persons residing in Poland, as the content is posted mainly in the Polish language. Therefore, the removal of content uploaded by the claimant with the suggestion that the content is harmful and poses a threat to the safety of users means that the effects of the infringement of the freedom of expression in the form of blocking sites and groups also occurred at the claimant’s place of business and the effects of the infringement of the reputation of the uploader also occurred at the claimant’s place of business.
The above led the Court to the conclusion that it does have jurisdiction to hear SIN’s claim.
In its appeal agains this decision, Facebook raised lack of jurisdiction of Polish courts pursuant to Article 25 of the Brussels I bis Regulation pointing to the existence of a prorogation clause, which covers also claims based on violation of personality rights. In its response to the appeal, SIN submitted that the jurisdiction to grant interim measures exists on the basis of Article 35 of the Brussels I bis Regulation, and therefore, Facebook might not ask for lifting of the interim measures submitting lack of jurisdiction.
In the decision of May 2021 in which the first decision on interim measures was upheld, the Court analysed the existence of jurisdiction as to the merits of the case and as to interim measures. Interestingly, it first cited the provisions on jurisdiction contained in domestic law (namely, Article 11037(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure), to later conclude that Article 7(2) of the Brussels I bis Regulation “is similar to 11037(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure”. The Court then referred to the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice of the EU, in particular in e-Date case and stated that
(…) Undoubtedly, the infringement of personal rights in the form described by the claimant took place in Poland (…)
Indeed, infringement of personal rights on the Internet is a so-called multi-state tort, the effects of which arise not only at the place where the server containing the data is located or where the company infringing personal rights is established, but also at the center of the life interests of the recipient of such infringement and of the more broadly, the public who may come into contact with such a violation of personal rights by using the portal in question.
There is no doubt that the public debate on Polish public affairs that takes place on the Internet, despite its virtual character, takes place on the territory of Poland. Therefore, it should be considered that the consequences of infringement of personal rights also take place in Poland.
When it comes to jurisdiction to grant interim measures the Court confirmed that it does exist, referring only to domestic law (Article 1110³(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure), instead of Brussels I bis Regulation.
Applicable LawIn Poland, Article 16(1) of the 2011 Act on Private International Law, provides that the personal rights of a natural person are governed by the law of his / her nationality. Pursuant to Article 16(2) of this Act, natural person whose personal rights were threatened or infringed may claim protection under the law of the state where the event giving rise to a threat or infringement has occurred, or under the law of the state where the consequences of the infringement occurred. In accordance with Article 20, the above mutatis mutandis applies to the protection of the personal rights of legal persons.
Having cited these provisions, the Court very briefly concluded in the decision of June 2019 that
Since the claimant links the effects of the infringement of personal rights to the territory of Poland, the applicable law is Polish law.
Please note that English translation of Polish 2011 Act on PIL is available online in volume XIII of the Yearbook of Private International Law at p. 641.
Service of DocumentsFacebook refused to accept SIN’s claim which was written in Polish language. Hence, the Court decided on translation of court documents into English and summoned SIN to pay an advanced payment for this translation.
Referring to Service Regulation SIN appealed this decision, arguing that Facebook directs its services to Polish users. There are approximately 16 000 000 Polish users of Facebook. All documents regulating the use of the platform are available in Polish language. After their acceptance they constitute contracts which are concluded by Facebook with its customers. This means that Facebook is party to millions of contracts written in Polish language. As a result, one might not argue that Facebook does not understand this language.
Irrespective of SIN’s arguments an appeal to the decision on advanced payment for translation was dismissed by a decision of March 2022. Hence, SIN had to pay for the translation.
News on SIN’s case are published in Polish and English and may be followed here.
Soleymani v Nifty Gateway LLC [2022] EWCA Civ 1297 is the appeal against [2022] EWHC 773 (Comm) which I reviewed here. That post will give readers the necessary background. The Court of Appeal partially overturned. The judge had issued a stay of English proceedings under s9 Arbitration Act 1996, effectively allowing a US arbitrator to decide the validity of the arbitration agreement. That stay has now been lifted and E&W proceedings on that issue will go ahead.
Of note is that the discussion takes place under retained EU law, with the relevant provisions in ia s15b of the Civil Jurisdiction and Judgments Act 1982 (as amended) mirroring the consumer section of Brussels Ia and Directive 93/13 on unfair terms in consumer contracts, as amended.
A first ground of appeal concerned the core of the Brussels Ia issue: whether the Court had jurisdiction under s. 15B CJJA because the exception for arbitration under Article 1(2)(d) of the Recast Regulation did not apply to the Arbitration Claim. In other words whether the exclusion for arbitration is engaged when a consumer, ordinarily protected by the forum actoris provisions in A17 ff BIa, calls upon that protection to seize a UK court.
The first instance judge held that the principal focus and subject matter of Mr Soleymani’s claim is whether he is legally obliged to arbitrate, hence engaging the arbitration exception. The Court of Appeal agrees for largely the same reasons as the judge, and with Popplewell J [89] indicating no change in his views following CJEU Prestige. The CA’s own finding in [2021] EWCA Civ 1589 The Prestige is recalled: “the question is whether a principal focus of the proceedings is arbitration, the essential subject matter of the claim concerns arbitration, or the relief sought can be said to be ancillary to the arbitration process, these being alternative ways of expressing the same idea”.
The Court of Appeal’s focus seems to be on avoiding abuse by the consumer, who could circumvent the arbitration exception by bringing his claim within the scope of BIa hence characterising it as a claim to enforce his consumer rights.
I continue to find the alternative more convincing: that the consumer section could be easily circumvented, particularly by non-EU based traders and /or in the event of arbitration outside the EU, simply by inserting an ADR clause in the contract, depriving the consumer of the forum actoris. Claimant’s counsel’s nine reasons [51] in my view have convincing appeal, and not Popplewell J’s suggestion [93] ff that in practice the consumer would be protected anyways, either by the ability to sue in the UK and have the ADR clause declared void under consumer protection law, or by the ability to have any foreign award declared unenforceable under the New York Convention’s ordre public exception. The very case at hand show the real difficulties (and costs) the consumer will be put through if and when the business party to the transaction decides to pursue the arbitration proceedings abroad.
The second ground of appeal was dismissed for it relied on s. 15D(1) being construed as invalidating the arbitration clause, which the Court had already held it did not, however ground 3 was accepted, for reasons formulated by Birss LJ.
Mr Soleymani’s claim consisted of claims for three distinct declarations: (i) a declaration that the arbitration clause was unfair and not binding, (ii) a declaration that the governing law clause was unfair and not binding, and (iii) a declaration that the contract formed in the auction was illegal under the Gambling Act 2005.
The jurisdiction issues under Grounds 1 and 2 of the appeal relate only to the first of these three, the arbitration clause claim. The judge as discussed decided that the Arbitration Claim was within the arbitration exception which now forms part of the CJJA (and had its origin in the Brussels Convention and the later Recast Regulation), and the appeal from that decision was dismissed.
The judge however also decided that the other two claims, that is the Governing Law Claim and the Gambling Act Claim were not clearly within the arbitration exception, yet she stayed the E&W proceedings to give way to the arbitration in New York. Therefore these claims were at least capable of falling within the jurisdiction gateway provided for in s15B(2)(b) CJJA 1982. Ground 3 argued that the first instance judge erred in staying these proceedings under section 9 of the arbitration Act without determining the fairness question or directing a trial before the English Court on the issues raised by that objection.
That ground was upheld for three reasons [151] ff which all go towards limits to Kompetenz Kompetenz in consumer (and other?) cases.
Firstly, the public importance of decisions vindicating (or not) consumers’ rights. The case Mr Soleymani is seeking to make has implications for consumers in general in this jurisdiction and it is important that they are considered and ruled upon in public in a court. Therefore it was held the s9(4) issues should be decided at a trial and not left to be decided in the arbitral tribunal.
Further [152] the consumer protection rights under UK law involve domestic concepts which UK court are far better placed to adjudicate upon than a New York arbitrator. Even if it were certain that the New York Tribunal would apply UK law (a late proffered undertaking to do so was made and discussed [155] ff), it engages principles which are the subject matter of our domestic jurisprudence, not simply some general notion of fairness.
Thirdly whether the arbitration agreement does in fact operate unfairly on Mr Soleymani is not suited to summary determination. “If the invalidity argument is good, the very reasons which make it good, namely that it places an unfair burden on Mr Soleymani, weigh against allowing the tribunal to decide the issue under its Kompetenz-Kompetenz jurisdiction. The Judge’s finding that there would be nothing unfair about leaving it to the arbitrator to decide that issue is inconsistent with her recognition that there was a triable issue whether this was an unfair arbitration agreement.”
Geert.
EU Private International Law, 3rd ed. 2021, Heading 2.2.3.2, and 2.2.9.2.
Highly relevant judgment under retained EU law on possibility for consumers to enjoy jurisdictional protection of EU rules to avoid #arbitration outside of the EU
Review of the first instance judgment here https://t.co/G1wCZbigfs
Soleymani v Niftyhttps://t.co/3h8nGbIgGZ
— Geert Van Calster (@GAVClaw) October 6, 2022
Sierd J. Schaafsma (Justice of the Supreme Court of the Netherlands) is the author of Intellectual Property in the Conflict of Laws – The Hidden Conflict-of-law Rule in the Principle of National Treatment, published by Edward Elgar.
The world of intellectual property (patents, trade marks, copyrights, et cetera) is becoming increasingly international. More and more frequently, disputes about intellectual property have an international character. This inevitably raises questions of private international law: which national court is competent to adjudicate an international dispute of this kind? And which national law should be applied to an international case of this kind? Since the 1990s, the first question in particular has attracted attention; in recent years, the focus has shifted to the second question: which national law is applicable? Opinions differ widely on this matter today. The controversy focuses on the question whether the Berne Convention and the Paris Convention, the two most important treaties on intellectual property, contain a rule that designates the applicable law. In other words: do these treaties contain a ‘conflict-of-law rule’ as it is called? This question, which concerns nearly all countries in the world, is nowadays considered to be ‘heftig umstritten’ (fiercely contested) and ‘très difficile’ (very difficult). And that is where we come across something strange: today it may be fiercely contested whether these treaties contain a conflict-of-law rule, but in the past, for the nineteenth-century authors of these treaties, it was perfectly self-evident that these treaties contain a conflict-of-law rule, namely in the ‘principle of national treatment’ as it is called. How is that possible? These are the fundamental questions at the heart of this book: does the principle of national treatment in the Berne Convention and the Paris Convention contain a conflict-of-law rule? And if so, why do we no longer understand this conflict-of-law rule today?
This book is an English translation of Sierd J. Schaafsma’s groundbreaking book, which appeared in Dutch in 2009 (now updated with the most significant case law and legislation).
Further information available here.
Relève de la notion d’« intermédiaire d’assurance » et, partant, de celle de « distributeur de produits d’assurance », une personne morale dont l’activité consiste à proposer à ses clients d’adhérer sur une base volontaire, en contrepartie d’une rémunération qu’elle perçoit de ceux-ci, à une assurance de groupe qu’elle a préalablement souscrite auprès d’une compagnie d’assurances.
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