Donny Surtani & Nick Chapman examine the increasing predictability of jurisdiction in EU tort cases & the impact of Universal Music International Holding BV v Schilling
- Under the rules that control jurisdictional issues for civil claims within the EU, the general position is that a defendant should be sued in the member state in which they are domiciled. However, where a claim is brought in tort, the claimant is also able to issue proceedings in either the place where the damage occurred or the place of the event that gave rise to the damage.
- The allowances given to tort claimants have the potential to create difficulties where the damage is purely financial loss. More specifically, previous decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) have raised the possibility of a claimant being able to pursue a claim in a jurisdiction that has very weak links to the subject-matter of the dispute, purely on the basis that that jurisdiction is the location of the claimant’s bank account, which felt the alleged loss.
- The CJEU has recently held that pure financial damage of this
