Judgment of the Court Third Chamber of 28 April 2022, Meta Platforms Ireland, C-319/20

• Date: 28 April 2022
• Year: 2022

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In the third place, lastly, the Court confirms its case-law according to which EU law precludes a

national court from limiting the temporal effects of a declaration of invalidity which, pursuant to

national law, it is bound to make as regards national legislation requiring providers of electronic

communications services to retain, generally and indiscriminately, traffic and location data, owing to

the incompatibility of that legislation with the Directive on privacy and electronic communications.

However, the Court recalls that the admissibility of evidence obtained by means of such retention is,

in accordance with the principle of procedural autonomy of the Member States, a matter for national

law, subject to compliance, inter alia, with the principles of equivalence and effectiveness.

Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber) of 28 April 2022, Meta Platforms Ireland, C-319/20

Link to the complete text of the judgment

Reference for a preliminary ruling – Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of

personal data – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Article 80 – Representation of the data subjects by a not-for-

profit association – Representative action brought by a consumer protection association in the absence of

a mandate and independently of the infringement of specific rights of a data subject – Action based on

the prohibition of unfair commercial practices, the in fringement of a consumer protection law or the

prohibition of the use of invalid general terms and conditions

Meta Platforms Ireland manages the provision of services of the online social network Facebook and

is the controller of the personal data of users of that social network in the European Union. The

Facebook internet platform contains, at the internet address www.facebook.de, an area called ‘App-

Zentrum’ (‘App Center’) on which Meta Platforms Ireland makes available to users free games

provided by third parties. When viewing some of those games, the user is informed that use of the

application concerned enables the gaming company to obtain a certain amount of personal data and

gives it permission to publish data on behalf of that user. By using that application, the user accepts

its general terms and conditions and data protection policy. In addition, in the case of a specific game,

the user is informed that the application has permis sion to post photos and other information on his

or her behalf.

The German Federal Union of Consumer Organisations and Associations

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considered that the

information provided by the games concerned in the App Center was unfair. Therefore, as a body

with standing to bring procee dings seeking to end infringements of consumer p rotection

legislation,

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the Federal Union brought an action for an injunction against Meta Platforms Ireland.

That action was brought independently of a specific infringement of the right to data protection of a

data subject and without a mandate from a data subject. The decision upholding that action was the

subject of an appeal brought by Meta Platforms Ireland which, after that appeal was dismissed, then

brought a further appeal before the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice, Germany). Since it

had doubts as to the admissibility of the action brought by the Federal Union, and in particular as to

its standing to bring proceedings against Meta Platforms Ireland, that court referred the matter to the

Court of Justice.

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Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentralen und Verbraucherverbände – Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband eV (‘the Federal Union’).

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Under German law, the laws on consumer protection also include rules defining the lawfulness of the collection or processing or use of a

consumer’s personal data by an undertaking or entrepreneur.