Responsibility for postings on Facebook

The owner of a Facebook-account whose membership account has been used by a third party, is liable on the principles of the so-called „Halzband“-decision issued by the German Supreme Court (there, the wife of the accountholder had advertised a non-genuine piece of jewellery as “Cartier“ on eBay. Although the husband was unaware of his wife’s activities on his account, he has been sentenced by the court as the accountholder). The holder of a membership account who has not sufficiently protected his access data against third-party access must be treated as if he was responsible for the infringement of protective rights and of competition rules caused by a third party via this access. The careless storage of access data for the member account constitutes a breach of duty, which (in addition to the principles of interference liability) forms an independent ground for attribution. [OLG Frankfurt (Higher Regional Court Frankfurt) 21.07.2016, 16 U 233/15]