Nejvyšší soud; 2019-10-17; 30 Cdo 2357/2019
Decision by national courts in the field of European Union law — ECLI:CZ:NS:2019:30.CDO.2357.2019.1
Date: 2019-10-17
Subject matter: Judicial cooperation in civil matters
Origin: Czechia

82019CZ1017(51)_ENG_SUMJURE
JURE summary
JURE summary
This case regards a question of the international jurisdiction of the Czech courts brought before the Nejvyšší soud (hereinafter ‘the Supreme Court’).
A company domiciled in the Czech Republic (hereinafter ‘plaintiff’) sought before the Městský soud v Praze (hereinafter ‘the Court of First Instance’) the payment of CZK 1 mil. as reasonable redress for alleged damage to its reputation caused by a natural person domiciled in a foreign  State (1) (hereinafter ‘the defendant’). The plaintiff also requested the court to order the defendant to refrain from using, in the territory of the Czech Republic, motor vehicles bearing posters with a text message proclaiming that the plaintiff failed to pay the defendant an amount owed.
The defendant objected the international jurisdiction of the Court of First Instance, but the Court of First Instance and later also the Vrchní soud v Praze (hereinafter ‘the Court of Appeal’) dismissed this objection.
The defendant appealed to the Supreme Court alleging that pursuant to Article 4 of the Brussels I Regulation (recast) (2) ‘persons domiciled in a Member State shall, whatever their nationality, be sued in the courts of that Member State’.
The Supreme Court considered the appeal inadmissible and upheld the conclusion of lower courts, pointing to the fact that the jurisdiction of the Czech courts was correctly based on Article 7(2) of the Brussels I Regulation (recast), according to which ‘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’.
(1) Not specified in the judgment.
(2) 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.