In April 2006, the magazine "das neue", published by the defendant, published an article dealing with the then being together of Sabine Christiansen, the plaintiff, with Norbert Medus, her current husband, in Paris. Both the cover page of the magazine and the article inside are illustrated with photos showing both persons together. The title page and article contain, among other things, the text: "So in love in Paris" and "Bet she'll marry this man soon".
The plaintiff had the defendant prohibited from publishing and distributing the images by a judgment of the Berlin Regional Court. The appeal by the defendant was essentially dismissed by the Berlin Court of Appeal. It justified its decision by stating that the photos, which showed the persons depicted performing private tasks and could only have been taken on the basis of continuous observation by photographers, constituted an encroachment on the plaintiff's core area of privacy, which the plaintiff did not have to accept, especially since the article had essentially served only to entertain and had no significant social relevance.
The VI. Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH), which is responsible for the right of personality. Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) confirmed the appeal judgement. The plaintiff and her partner can be identified as lovers in the photos, and in recognisably private situations. Private life events are part of the protected private sphere even if they take place in public space and if those depicted are known to a wider public. It would constitute a considerable restriction of the right to free development of personality if everyone known to a wider public could not move about in public in an unbiased manner because they could be photographed at any time without the necessary consent, even on private occasions. An informational interest of the public, behind which the plaintiff's protection of personality rights had to take a back seat, did not exist here, neither with regard to the motifs depicted nor with regard to the reporting on details of the relationship of the persons depicted at the time and their private undertakings in Paris. The plaintiff's frequent appearances in public and her public statements about the new relationship did not change this assessment. As a rule, the self-promotion of celebrities does not give the press the right to publish pictures from their private lives without the necessary consent, if the publication does not have a sufficient interest in information to be taken into account in the context of the weighing of interests.
Judgment of the Federal Supreme Court of 17 February 2009 - VI ZR 75/08
Lower courts:
KG Berlin - 10 U 166/07 - Decision of 11.2.2008
LG Berlin - 27 O 85/07 - Decision of 8 May 2007
Source: BGH press release of 17 February 2009
Goldberg Attorneys at Law
Attorney at Law Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist lawyer for information technology law (IT law)
E-mail: info@goldberg.de
