Oberster Gerichtshof, Urteil vom 06/07/2004 4 Ob 146/04f
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:AT:OGH0002:2004:RS0119142
Date: 2004-07-06
Subject matter: Brussels Convention of 27 September 1968
Origin: Austria

82004AT0706(04)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE SUMMARY
JURE SUMMARY
The plaintiff, domiciled in Austria, seeks from the defendant, domiciled in Germany, the omission of untruthful business- and credit-damaging statements sent by the defendant to business partners in Poland. The court of first instance held that the place where the damage following the defendant’s statements occurred was at the seat of the plaintiff’s company and affirmed its competence, which was instead denied by the appellate court.
The OGH (AT) holds that in the case of cross-border defamation by the press, the ECJ permits an action also at the place, at which the defamation was published and at which it damaged the reputation of the person concerned. However, in the case of a tort committed over a distance, the place where the harmful event occurred within the meaning of Article 5(3) Brussels Convention is only the place where the damage first occurred. In this case the business-damaging statements by the defendant were made in Poland and could have damaged the reputation of the plaintiff only there. The further effect on the plaintiff is only a consequence of the defamation and creates no particularly close connection between the spreading of the defamatory statements and the court called upon at the plaintiff’s seat.