Individualisation of the protection of personal interests – commentary on the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Warsaw of 10 February 2022, VI ACa 141/21

Abstract

This commentary is of a critical character. The author focuses on the assessment of the claimants’ standing to seek protection of their personal interests in connection with statements concerning a group with which they identified. The system of personal interests’ protection, based on the principle of individualisation of infringement, limits the scope of protection to situations in which the disputed statement, from the perspective of an average recipient, refers to the person seeking protection. The commented judgment constitutes yet another attempt to extend the protection arising from Article 24 § 1 of the Civil Code to interests which, in fact, do not fall within the category of personal interests. In the case of statements concerning a specific group of persons, protection of an individual under the regime of personal interests is possible only when the statement allows for unambiguous identification of a particular person. Individualisation, therefore, does not occur in the case of statements referring to a circle of persons defined merely in generic terms, e.g. on the basis of sex, skin colour, or sexual orientation.