Assistant lawyers Paulina Patašiūtė and Erlandas Prakapavičius compiled the material.
Data protection
Request for a preliminary ruling in Case C-323/26, Protectra
Published: 17 August 2026
The Court of Justice of the European Union has been asked by the Landgericht Leipzig (Germany) to clarify whether Article 80(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prevents data subjects’ compensation claims under Article 82 GDPR from being asserted through a debt collection assignment (Inkassozession). The preliminary ruling request concerns proceedings between Protectra GmbH and sprd.net AG and raises questions about the mechanisms through which individuals may enforce their rights to compensation for infringements of data protection rules.
The ruling could provide further guidance on whether compensation claims arising from GDPR infringements may be transferred to and pursued by another entity through a debt collection model.
Intellectual property
Request for a preliminary ruling in Case C-517/26, Aranzadi La Ley
Published: 17 August 2026
The Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) has asked the Court of Justice of the European Union to clarify whether a third-party browser extension that temporarily modifies the display or HTML source code of a website providing legal content may constitute an unauthorised alteration of a computer program under Article 4 of Directive 2009/24/EC on the legal protection of computer programs. The dispute between Aranzadi La Ley S.A.U. and VLex Networks S.L. concerns an extension that, when activated by users visiting Aranzadi’s webpages, temporarily interrupts browsing and offers access to VLex’s competing legal information services.
