05/02/2020 62016CJ0498  use of the relevant goods or services that is other than a trade or professional use (see, to that effect, judgment of 20 January 2005, Gruber, C-464/01, EU:C:2005:32, paragraph 37). 32 As regards, more particularly, a person who concludes a contract for a purpose which is partly concerned with his trade or profession and is therefore only partly outside it, the Court has held that he could rely on those provisions only if the link between the contract and the trade or profession of the person concerned was so slight as to be marginal and, therefore, had only a negligible role in the context of the supply in respect of which the contract was concluded, considered in its entirety (see, to that effect, judgment of 20 January 2005, Gruber, C-464/01, EU:C:2005:32, paragraph 39). 33 It is in the light of those principles that it is appropriate to examine whether circumstances such as those at issue in the main proceedings do not entail the loss of a Facebook account user’s status as a ‘consumer’ within the meaning of Article 15 of Regulation No 44/2001. 34 In that regard, it is clear from, inter alia, the order for reference that, between 2008 and 2010, Mr Schrems initially used a Facebook account which he had opened exclusively for private purposes whereas, from 2011, he has also used a Facebook page. 35 According to the applicant in the main proceedings, there are two separate contracts, that is to say, one for the Facebook page and the other for the Facebook account. By contrast, according to Facebook Ireland, the Facebook account and the Facebook page form part of the same single contractual relationship. 36 Although it is for the referring court to establish whether Mr Schrems and Facebook Ireland are, in fact, bound by one or several contracts and to draw the appropriate inferences regarding the status of ‘consumer’, it should be noted that even a potential contractual link between the Facebook account and the Facebook page would not call into question an assessment of such status on the basis of the principles set out in paragraphs 29 to 32 of the present judgment. 37 Within the framework of that assessment, in accordance with the requirement, referred to in paragraph 29 above, to construe strictly the notion of ‘consumer’ within the meaning of Article 15 of Regulation No 44/2001, it is necessary, in particular, to take into account, as far as concerns services of a digital social network which are intended to be used over a long period of time, subsequent changes in the use which is made of those services. 38 This interpretation implies, in particular, that a user of such services may, in bringing an action, rely on his status as a consumer only if the predominately non-professional use of those services, for which the applicant initially concluded a contract, has not subsequently become predominately professional. 39 On the other hand, given that the notion of a ‘consumer’ is defined by contrast to that of an ‘economic operator’ (see, to that effect, judgments of 3 July 1997, Benincasa, C-269/95, EU:C:1997:337, paragraph 16, and of 20 January 2005, Gruber, C-464/01, EU:C:2005:32, paragraph 36) and that it is distinct from the knowledge and information that the person concerned actually possesses (judgment of 3 September 2015, Costea, C-110/14, EU:C:2015:538, paragraph 21), neither the expertise which that person may acquire in the field covered by those services nor his assurances given for the purposes of representing the rights and interests of the users of those services can deprive him of the status of a ‘consumer’ within the meaning of Article 15 of Regulation No 44/2001. 40 Indeed, an interpretation of the notion of ‘consumer’ which excluded such activities would have the effect of preventing an effective defence of the rights that consumers enjoy in relation to their contractual partners who are traders or professionals, including those rights which relate to the protection of their personal data. Such an interpretation would disregard the objective set out in Article 169(1) TFEU of promoting the right of consumers to organise themselves in order to safeguard their interests. 41 In the light of all of the foregoing considerations, the answer to the first question is that Article 15 of Regulation No 44/2001 must be interpreted as meaning that the activities of publishing books, lecturing, operating websites, fundraising and being assigned the claims of numerous consumers for the purpose of their enforcement do not entail the loss of a private Facebook account user’s status as a ‘consumer’ within the meaning of that article. file:///Users/nerissa/Downloads/Columbia CSV/Schrems v Facebook Ireland.htm 6/8