Overview
- The Bundesgerichtshof sent two cases to the European Court of Justice and suspended its proceedings on Thursday, September 17, 2026, while it awaits a binding EU ruling.
- One case involves a daughter who secretly filmed her mother in a shared home and passed recordings to the police; the other concerns a woman who forwarded private WhatsApp chats to an employer, which led to a colleague’s dismissal.
- The BGH asked the EuGH to clarify how to read the GDPR’s 'household exception' and whether the terms 'personal' and 'family' activities exclude such conduct from EU data rules.
- Judges also asked whether the purpose of the processing—for example reporting to police or causing a professional harm to a third party—matters for the exception, and how competing fundamental rights should be weighed.
- A decisive EuGH answer will guide national courts on remedies like deletion, access and damages and could take several months to as long as one to two years, with practical effects for everyday sharing and private surveillance.