Where to Litigate Under the DMA: Jurisdictional Considerations in Private Enforcement

A key ques­ti­on in the con­text of pri­va­te enforce­ment under the Digi­tal Mar­kets Act (DMA) is: Whe­re can I bring a claim?

The first step is to deter­mi­ne inter­na­tio­nal juris­dic­tion — that is, in which coun­try pro­cee­dings may be initia­ted. This ques­ti­on is gover­ned by the Brussels Ia Regu­la­ti­on (also refer­red to Regu­la­ti­on (EU) No. 1215/2012). In most cases, Artic­le 7(2) appli­es, which con­fers juris­dic­tion on the courts of the place whe­re the harmful event occur­red or may occur.

If this leads to juris­dic­tion in Ger­ma­ny, the next ques­ti­on is that of local juris­dic­tion within the country.

Jurisdiction under German Law: Unified System for DMA and Competition Law

Pri­va­te enforce­ment of the DMA in Ger­ma­ny is clo­se­ly ali­gned with pri­va­te anti­trust enforce­ment. Sec­tion 87 of the Ger­man Com­pe­ti­ti­on Act (GWB) sti­pu­la­tes that for all civil dis­pu­tes invol­ving the appli­ca­ti­on of Artic­les 5, 6, or 7 of the DMA, the regio­nal courts (Land­ge­rich­te) have exclu­si­ve juris­dic­tion, regard­less of the amount in controversy.

Does this mean a cla­im can be brought befo­re any regio­nal court?

Not quite — when the cla­im is based on tort under the DMA, the so-cal­led forum delic­ti prin­ci­ple may app­ly, poten­ti­al­ly allo­wing plain­ti­ffs to bring an action befo­re any court in which the harmful effect occur­red. Howe­ver, Sec­tion 89(1), first sen­tence GWB allows each fede­ral sta­te to cen­tra­li­se juris­dic­tion for the­se types of dis­pu­tes by assig­ning them to spe­ci­fic regio­nal courts.

Seve­ral fede­ral sta­tes have made use of this opti­on. In North Rhi­ne-West­pha­lia, for exam­p­le, the Judi­cial Juris­dic­tion Regu­la­ti­on (Jus­tiz­zu­stän­dig­keits­ver­ord­nung – JuZu­VO NRW) assigns exclu­si­ve juris­dic­tion for such cases to the regio­nal courts in Colo­gne, Düs­sel­dorf, and Bochum (Sec­tion 22(1) JuZu­VO NRW).

Specific Rules for Consumer Collective Actions (UKlaG)

Ano­ther lay­er of com­ple­xi­ty ari­ses in con­su­mer pro­tec­tion actions based on the Injunc­tions Act (UKlaG). Accor­ding to Sec­tion 6(1) UKlaG, the Hig­her Regio­nal Courts (Ober­lan­des­ge­rich­te) have exclu­si­ve juris­dic­tion for such claims. The DMA has been expli­cit­ly included in the cata­lo­gue of con­su­mer pro­tec­tion laws under Sec­tion 2(2) No. 56 UKlaG.

Strategic Considerations for Litigation

Are you con­side­ring legal action based on the DMA or asses­sing your pro­ce­du­ral posi­ti­on in digi­tal mar­ket disputes?

Our bou­tique law firm pro­vi­des stra­te­gic legal advice on juris­dic­tion, forum sel­ec­tion, and liti­ga­ti­on stra­tegy in the evol­ving field of digi­tal com­pe­ti­ti­on law. We com­bi­ne legal pre­cis­i­on with prac­ti­cal insight into regu­la­to­ry dynamics.

Cont­act us for a tail­o­red assess­ment of your enforce­ment options.