Data protection and European private international law: observing a bull in a China shop

Key pointsthe objective of the present article is to point out current and potential obstacles to effective protection of the fundamental right to data protection, created by rules on jurisdiction, and to put forward solutions for removing those obstacles with regard to data protection.the article elaborates on categories of litigation in the field of data protection in order to identify potential claimants, defendants, and competent administrative and judicial authorities that may decide on those remedies.building upon these categories of litigation, the article seeks to determine jurisdictional issues regarding data protection litigation within the european union, elaborating concretely on potential competent courts in the case a data subject wants to file a private enforcement claim against a controller processing his personal data.the article proposes to amend the regulation 1215/2012 so as to include a special section determining jurisdiction in data protection disputes.