L’individuazione del forum commissi delicti in caso di illeciti cibernetici: alcune riflessioni a margine della sentenza Concurrence Sàrl

With a view to ensuring an adequate degree of proximity between the dispute and the court having jurisdiction, EU private international law rules identify the competent court to adjudicate on matters relating to tort through the connecting criteria of the place where the damage or the event giving rise to the damage occurred. In the current historical context, however, the application of the aforementioned connecting criteria is significantly impacted by technological evolutions and more specifically by the creation of "spaces", such as the cyberspace, which are not easily connected to the territory of a particular State. Such complexities have also affected the interpretation of the rule currently provided by art. 7, n. 2, of Regulation 1215/2012 (Brussels I), whose application with regard to cyber torts gave rise to an interesting line of ECJ [European Court of Justice] case-law. In this perspective, the present article - inspired by the recent ECJ judgment on the case "Concurrence Sàrl" - aims at analysing the relevant ECJ jurisprudence, with a view to assessing the balance that the Court has managed to strike so far between the different interests and values involved in this kind of disputes (such as predictability of the competent court, prevention of forum shopping and sound administration of justice), by adjusting and adapting to the most recent developments the interpretation of rules which have been drafted (and initially applied) in a completely different historical and technological context