Opinion of the Advocate General in the case C-194/16

www.curia.europa.eu Press and Information Court of Justice of the European Union PRESS RELEASE No 78/17 Luxembourg, 13 July 2017 Advocate Generals Opinion in Case C-194/16 Bolagsupplysningen OÜ and Ingrid Ilsjan v Svensk Handel AB Advocate General Bobek considers that a company alleging that its personality rights have been infringed by the publication of information on the internet can take legal action in the Member State where it has its centre of interests for the entirety of the harm claimed For internet defamation claims, where a company has its centre of interests is likely to be the place where its reputation was most strongly hit by the defamation Bolagsupplysningen OÜ is a company established in Tallinn, Estonia, which does most of its business in Sweden. It was placed on a blacklist on the website of Svensk Handel AB, a Swedish Trade Federation, for dealing in lies and deceit. Over 1000 comments were posted in response. The company started legal proceedings against the Swedish Trade Federation in Estonia. It asked the Estonian court to order the removal of the blacklisting and comments published on the website. They also sought damages of 56,634.99 for the harm caused to their business. In the context of an appeal to the Riigikohus (Supreme Court, Estonia), the question is whether the Estonian courts have jurisdiction to hear the case under EU law.1 More broadly, the case invites the Court to articulate jurisdictional rules relating to reputational harm done by...