Austrian judge rejects Vienna plotter's privacy claim against Disney
An Austrian judge has thrown out a privacy claim against Disney brought by the man jailed over the foiled 2024 plot to attack Taylor Swift's Vienna concerts.
Judge Nicole Baczak ruled on Wednesday, Sept. 30, that 21-year-old Beran A. has no viable case over a brief shot of his family's home in the Disney+ docuseries The End of an Era, according to Billboard. The hearing in Austria centred on whether showing the house had breached his privacy rights.
The court said it had not. Baczak found that Beran A. does not live at the address shown and has not lived there for two years. That point proved decisive.
Beran A. is an Austrian citizen serving 15 years in prison after being sentenced in May for helping organise the planned attack. He had argued that the programme violated his personal privacy by identifying the family property. His lawyer said after the ruling that he would appeal.
Disney told the court the image at issue has now been removed from the series. Separately, Beran A.'s parents were each paid €3,000 ($3,400) to settle their own claims over the depiction of the home. Swift herself is not involved in the case.
The underlying plot led Austrian authorities to arrest several people in August 2024 after uncovering plans targeting Swift's Eras Tour dates at Vienna's Ernst Happel Stadium. Investigators said the suspects had been radicalised by the Islamic State and planned to attack concertgoers with knives and homemade bombs. Organisers called off all three Vienna concerts after officials announced the arrests, according to the Associated Press.
The End of an Era, released last December, chronicled Swift's reaction to the Vienna incident and the wider tour. Disney was represented in the Vienna privacy case by lawyer Georg Kresbach. The series itself was not accused of any other wrongdoing in the hearing.
A related prosecution in Germany ended with a teenage Syrian national known as Mohammed A. found guilty of participating in the Vienna plot. He received a suspended sentence of probation. Beran A.'s sentence followed his admission of planning the foiled Islamist attack, with the Austrian court passing sentence on May 28, 2026, according to Reuters.
