Tribunal da Relação de Lisboa; 2023-12-14; 701/21.0T8LRA-A.L1-6
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:PT:TRL:2023:701.21.0T8LRA.A.L1.6.87
Date: 2023-12-14
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Portugal

82023PT1214(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
The Brussels I Regulation (recast) (1) specifies in Article 7(2) that ‘a person domiciled in a Member State may be sued in another Member State in matters relating to tort, delict or quasi-delict, in the courts for the place where the harmful event occurred or may occur’.
The Court of Justice of the European Union has consistently interpreted the concept of ‘the place where the harmful event occurred’ as referring to both the place where the damage occurred and the place of the event giving rise to it.
If the plaintiff relies on the non-contractual liability of the defendants and seeks compensation for damage suffered in Portugal, where the plaintiff is based, the Portuguese courts have international jurisdiction to hear the case.
The appellant raised the issue of its substantive lack of standing in this matter. In particular, it argued that it is not the author of the report submitted with the initial application; it is not the owner or holder of the website www.creditreform.de; it is not possible to order company reports therefrom; and it is not a party to the material legal relationship underlying the present proceedings. As the case file does not contain sufficient information to resolve this issue at this stage, no criticism can be made of the decision, which, upon confirming the procedural requirements, deemed the parties to have standing and deferred the determination of the merits of the action to a final decision.
(1) Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 December 2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters (recast).