District Court Frankfurt and use of images of third parties from Xing etc.

At the end of last month, the district court of Frankfurt am Main delivered an interesting verdict that answered some questions in relation to GDPR and KUG and would otherwise be interesting for one or the other user who works a lot with business platforms. Could. In a rather convoluted case involving several parties, employees and other lawsuits, the image posted by the local plaintiff on Xing was used and emailed to another person, among other things to verify a person’s identity.

Because of this use of the photo followed a warning and finally the action at the district court of Frankfurt. The Landgericht ruled in favour of the plaintiff and came to the following guiding principles

1. The sending of an image by e-mail constitutes a distribution within the meaning of Sections 22, 23 of the KUG.
2. The setting of an image as a profile on a platform such as “Xing” does not give rise to consent in accordance with Section 22 of the KUG in any further use.
3. The principles of Sections 22, 23 of the CAS are in view of Article 6(6) of the 1 lit. f), 85 paragraphs 2 GDPR continues to apply.

Apart from the legal problem of the relationship between the Art Copyright Act and the General Data Protection Regulation, which has been swelling for two years, the judgment shows that the use of images that someone places on Xing, but of course also on LinkedIn or Facebook, shows that one is adjusting to the use of images that someone places on Xing, but also on LinkedIn or Facebook, of course, should be very careful. A public profile on such a platform does not give any right to use the images themselves or to send them to others via e-mail. The images should not be changed or used in any other way, but at most the link to the profile should be passed on.

Author: Marian Härtel

Marian Härtel ist Rechtsanwalt und Fachanwalt für IT-Recht mit einer über 25-jährigen Erfahrung als Unternehmer und Berater in den Bereichen Games, E-Sport, Blockchain, SaaS und Künstliche Intelligenz. Seine Beratungsschwerpunkte umfassen neben dem IT-Recht insbesondere das Urheberrecht, Medienrecht sowie Wettbewerbsrecht. Er betreut schwerpunktmäßig Start-ups, Agenturen und Influencer, die er in strategischen Fragen, komplexen Vertragsangelegenheiten sowie bei Investitionsprojekten begleitet. Dabei zeichnet sich seine Beratung durch einen interdisziplinären Ansatz aus, der juristische Expertise und langjährige unternehmerische Erfahrung miteinander verbindet. Ziel seiner Tätigkeit ist stets, Mandanten praxisorientierte Lösungen anzubieten und rechtlich fundierte Unterstützung bei der Umsetzung innovativer Geschäftsmodelle zu gewährleisten.