The legal consequences of the digital estate

The German Federal Supreme Court ruled that heirs fully enter into all legal relationships of the testator due to the general applicable universal succession. This applies equally to all digital contracts with operators. Therefore, heirs are granted the same rights as the testator himself, in particular for access, surrender and deletion of data. The testator may dispose of the digital estate and make deviating orders. The provision contained in the General Terms and Conditions of Facebook according to which the profile of the deceased changes to a “commemorative status” is invalid because it deviates too grossly from the legal principle of the transfer of all assets and it is not possible to exclude inheritability in the General Terms and Conditions. Furthermore, there is also no personal legal relationship here, which would preclude a compatibility. [BGH 12.07.2018, Az. III ZR 183/17]