Case C-191/15: Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 July 2016 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberster Gerichtshof — Austria) — Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Amazon EU Sàrl (Reference for a preliminary ruling — Judicial cooperation in civil matters — Regulations (EC) No 864/2007 and (EC) No 593/2008 — Consumer protection — Directive 93/13/EEC — Data protection — Directive 95/46/EC — Online sales contracts concluded with consumers resident in other Member States — Unfair terms — General terms and conditions containing a choice-of-law term applying the law of the Member State in which the company is established — Determination of the applicable law for assessing the unfairness of terms in those general terms and conditions in an action for an injunction — Determination of the law governing the processing of personal data of consumers)
Date: 2016-07-28
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: EU Member State, consumer protection, data protection, electronic commerce, establishment, judicial cooperation in civil matters in the EU, national law, personal data, residence, unfair terms of contract








C_2016350EN.01000801.xml










26.9.2016   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 350/8





Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 July 2016 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Oberster Gerichtshof — Austria) — Verein für Konsumenteninformation v Amazon EU Sàrl
(Case C-191/15) (1)

((Reference for a preliminary ruling - Judicial cooperation in civil matters - Regulations (EC) No 864/2007 and (EC) No 593/2008 - Consumer protection - Directive 93/13/EEC - Data protection - Directive 95/46/EC - Online sales contracts concluded with consumers resident in other Member States - Unfair terms - General terms and conditions containing a choice-of-law term applying the law of the Member State in which the company is established - Determination of the applicable law for assessing the unfairness of terms in those general terms and conditions in an action for an injunction - Determination of the law governing the processing of personal data of consumers))
(2016/C 350/10)
Language of the case: German

Referring court

Oberster Gerichtshof

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Verein für Konsumenteninformation

Defendant: Amazon EU Sàrl

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Regulation (EC) No 593/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 June 2008 on the law applicable to contractual obligations (Rome I) and Regulation (EC) No 864/2007 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 July 2007 on the law applicable to non-contractual obligations (Rome II) must be interpreted as meaning that, without prejudice to Article 1(3) of each of those regulations, the law applicable to an action for an injunction within the meaning of Directive 2009/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2009 on injunctions for the protection of consumers’ interests directed against the use of allegedly unfair contractual terms by an undertaking established in a Member State which concludes contracts in the course of electronic commerce with consumers resident in other Member States, in particular in the State of the court seised, must be determined in accordance with Article 6(1) of Regulation No 864/2007, whereas the law applicable to the assessment of a particular contractual term must always be determined pursuant to Regulation No 593/2008, whether that assessment is made in an individual action or in a collective action.










2.


Article 3(1) of Council Directive 93/13/EEC of 5 April 1993 on unfair terms in consumer contracts must be interpreted as meaning that a term in the general terms and conditions of a seller or supplier which has not been individually negotiated, under which the contract concluded with a consumer in the course of electronic commerce is to be governed by the law of the Member State in which the seller or supplier is established, is unfair in so far as it leads the consumer into error by giving him the impression that only the law of that Member State applies to the contract, without informing him that under Article 6(2) of Regulation No 593/2008 he also enjoys the protection of the mandatory provisions of the law that would be applicable in the absence of that term, this being for the national court to ascertain in the light of all the relevant circumstances.










3.


Article 4(1)(a) of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data must be interpreted as meaning that the processing of personal data carried out by an undertaking engaged in electronic commerce is governed by the law of the Member State to which that undertaking directs its activities, if it is shown that the undertaking carries out the data processing in question in the context of the activities of an establishment situated in that Member State. It is for the national court to ascertain whether that is the case.






(1)  OJ C 221, 6.7.2015.