| When it comes to consent under privacy law, the requirements seem clear. Art. 4 No. 11 and Art. 7 GDPR together with the corresponding Recitals provide sufficient guidance for formulating consents in compliance with the GDPR. Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR also appears to be sufficiently clear, according to which the data subject must be informed that consent given can be withdrawn at any time. But what happens if it is not (or no longer) possible to withdraw consent – for example, because photographs and/or video recordings have already been published or distributed? The Higher Regional Court of Koblenz was presented with a consent in which the data subject consented to the creation and distribution of images and was expressly informed that the consent could not be revoked. After the business relationship between the consent provider and consent recipient deteriorated, the data subject wanted to revoke his consent. However, the Koblenz Higher Regional Court rejected this option. The Higher Regional Court of Koblenz based its decision on the provisions of art copyright law (Sections 22 f KUG), according to which the revocation of consent to the creation and distribution of images is only possible in exceptional cases (reference decision of 31 July 2024, Ref. 4 U 238/23). The Koblenz Higher Regional Court thus also answered in the affirmative the repeatedly discussed question of whether the provisions of copyright law continue to apply after the GDPR comes into force. In practice, this means that special regulations apply to the formulation of consent for the creation and dissemination of images and that this consent is not always irrevocable. |