The Advocate General, Michal Bobek, published, on 14 November 2017, his opinion in Maximilian Schrems v. Facebook Ireland Limited (Case C-498/16) pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union ('CJEU') ('the Opinion'). The CJEU was engaged by the Austrian Supreme Court of Justice ('Oberster Gerichtshof') for a preliminary ruling on the interpretation of the word 'consumer' contained in Article 15 of the Regulation (EC) 44/2001 on Jurisdiction and the Recognition and Enforcement of Judgements in Civil and Commercial Matters and Article 16 with regard to the possibility of bringing other consumers' claims on the same subject regardless of their domicile.

Facebook argued that due to Schrems' professional activities being connected to his claims against Facebook, he had lost his consumer status and hence he could not rely on the forum of the consumer for his claim. However, Bobek proposed the CJEU decide that "the carrying out of activities such as publishing, lecturing, operating websites, or fundraising for the enforcement of claims do not entail the loss of consumer status for claims concerning one's own Facebook account used for private purposes."

With regard to the second question, Bobek proposed to answer that "a consumer cannot invoke, at the same time as his own claims, claims on the same subject assigned by other consumers domiciled in other places of the same Member State, in other Member States or in non-member states."

You can read the press release here and the Opinion here.