Request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberster Gerichtshof (Austria) lodged on 20 July 2021 – Maximilian Schrems v Facebook Ireland Ltd
(Case C-446/21)
Language of the case: German
Referring court
Oberster Gerichtshof
Parties to the main proceedings
Appellant on a point of law: Maximilian Schrems
Respondent in the appeal on a point of law: Facebook Ireland Ltd
Questions referred
Are the provisions of Article 6(1)(a) and (b) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 1 to be interpreted as meaning that the lawfulness of contractual provisions in general terms of service for platform agreements such as that in the main proceedings (in particular, contractual provisions such as: ‘Instead of paying … by using the Facebook Products covered by these Terms you agree that we can show you ads … We use your personal data … to show you ads that are more relevant to you.’) which provide for the processing of personal data with a view to aggregating and analysing it for the purposes of personalised advertising must be assessed in accordance with the requirements of Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, read in conjunction with Article 7 thereof, which cannot be replaced by invoking Article 6(1)(b) thereof?
Is Article 5(1)(c) of the GDPR (data minimisation) to be interpreted as meaning that all personal data held by a platform such as that in the main proceedings (by way of, in particular, the data subject or third parties on and outside the platform) may be aggregated, analysed and processed for the purposes of targeted advertising without restriction as to time or type of data?
Is Article 9(1) of the GDPR to be interpreted as applying to the processing of data that permits the targeted filtering of special categories of personal data such as political opinions or sexual orientation (for advertising, for example), even if the controller does not differentiate between those types of data?
Is Article 5(1)(b) of the GDPR, read in conjunction with Article 9(2)(e) thereof, to be interpreted as meaning that a statement made by a person about his or her own sexual orientation for the purposes of a panel discussion permits the processing of other data concerning sexual orientation with a view to aggregating and analysing the data for the purposes of personalised advertising?
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1 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ 2016 L 119, p. 1).