In a default judgment dated March 8, 2017 (case reference: 15 C 364/16), the Berlin Mitte Local Court ruled that the service of a statement of claim in German on a company based abroad – but operating on the German market – is effective.
A translation into the local official language is not required.
Service of the statement of claim on Facebook in German
In June 2016, Facebook blocked a member’s account without a valid reason.
The member was not authorized to use Facebook, but for security reasons the company could not provide any additional information about the blocking.
After unsuccessful out-of-court attempts to reverse the block, the member filed a lawsuit with the competent district court.
The lawsuit was directed against Facebook Ireland Ltd., which is responsible for the German Facebook page (facebook.de) and has its registered office in Ireland. The statement of claim was submitted to the responsible legal department in Ireland in full in German, together with attachments. However, a translation of the documents was not included.
Acceptance of the statement of claim can be refused
In principle, the addressee may refuse to accept a statement of claim if it is not written in the official language – or a language that the addressee understands(Art. 8 para.
1 ZVO).
Facebook did not defend itself in the course of the lawsuit.
They merely took the position that the complaint had not been effectively served.
However, the Berlin Mitte district court takes a different view.
Language skills are not only based on the personal skills of the management.
Rather, it depends on the company in its entire organization.
German language skills required for Facebook
In this respect, it can be assumed that a company has employees who can deal with legal disputes with customers.
In the case of facebook.de, legal questions via the online forms are always answered in German.
This point alone presupposes a knowledge of the language and leads to an ineffective refusal of service of process.
As further points for language proficiency, the AG Berlin Mitte states that the entire Facebook interface is designed in perfect German.
The terms and conditions, data policy and cookie policy were also written in German.
The German language is also not already excluded in the terms and conditions for legal action.
In addition, with 20 million German-speaking users alone, the company must be able to answer legal questions in German.
But Facebook is not the only company affected by the ruling.
Other internationally active companies will also have to expect lawsuits in German in the future.
In future, service of process in German should also be effective for internet companies such as Amazon, eBay and Google.
Ruling brings cost and time savings
The ruling is also to be welcomed with regard to any costs arising from a lawsuit.
The plaintiff does not necessarily have to have the application and the annexes – some of which can be up to 100 pages long – translated in future.
From our point of view, the decision of the Berlin Mitte Local Court is very welcome.
It remains to be seen whether the court of appeal that may be called upon will confirm the ruling in order to create legal certainty in this matter.