Data protection case law Court of Justice

Right to compensation and liability

6 pending referrals

Referral C-507/23 (Patērētāju tiesību aizsardzības centrs, 8 Aug 2023)


Referral C-200/23 (Agentsia po vpisvaniyata, 28 Mar 2023)


Referral C-65/23 (K GmbH, 8 Feb 2023)


Referral C-590/22 (PS, 9 Sep 2022)


Referral C-189/22 (Scalable Capital, 11 Mar 2022)


Referral C-182/22 (ED, 10 Mar 2022)


3 preliminary rulings

of 11 Apr 2024, C-741/21 (juris)

Article 82(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)must be interpreted as meaning that an infringement of provisions of that regulation which confer rights on the data subject is not sufficient, in itself, to constitute ‘non-material damage’ within the meaning of that provision, irrespective of the degree of seriousness of the damage suffered by that person.

Article 82 of Regulation 2016/679must be interpreted as meaning that it is not sufficient for the controller, in order to be exempted from liability under paragraph 3 of that article, to claim that the damage in question was caused by the failure of a person acting under his or her authority, within the meaning of Article 29 of that regulation.

of 4 May 2023, C-300/21 (Österreichische Post)

Article 82(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)must be interpreted as meaning that the mere infringement of the provisions of that regulation is not sufficient to confer a right to compensation.

Article 82(1) of Regulation 2016/679must be interpreted as precluding a national rule or practice which makes compensation for non-material damage, within the meaning of that provision, subject to the condition that the damage suffered by the data subject has reached a certain degree of seriousness.

Article 82 of Regulation 2016/679must be interpreted as meaning that for the purposes of determining the amount of damages payable under the right to compensation enshrined in that article, national courts must apply the domestic rules of each Member State relating to the extent of financial compensation, provided that the principles of equivalence and effectiveness of EU law are complied with.

Judgment of 7 May 2009, C-553/07 (Rijkeboer)

Article 12(a) of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data requires Member States to ensure a right of access to information on the recipients or categories of recipient of personal data and on the content of the data disclosed not only in respect of the present but also in respect of the past. It is for Member States to fix a time-limit for storage of that information and to provide for access to that information which constitutes a fair balance between, on the one hand, the interest of the data subject in protecting his privacy, in particular by way of his rights to object and to bring legal proceedings and, on the other, the burden which the obligation to store that information represents for the controller.Rules limiting the storage of information on the recipients or categories of recipient of personal data and on the content of the data disclosed to a period of one year and correspondingly limiting access to that information, while basic data is stored for a much longer period, do not constitute a fair balance of the interest and obligation at issue, unless it can be shown that longer storage of that information would constitute an excessive burden on the controller. It is, however, for national courts to make the determinations necessary.


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