Hoge Raad - UTR 24/4233
| Hoge Raad - UTR 24/4233 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court: | Hoge Raad (Netherlands) |
| Jurisdiction: | Netherlands |
| Relevant Law: | Article 9 GDPR |
| Decided: | 14.04.2025 |
| Published: | 14.04.2025 |
| Parties: | |
| National Case Number/Name: | UTR 24/4233 |
| European Case Law Identifier: | |
| Appeal from: | |
| Appeal to: | Unknown |
| Original Language(s): | Dutch |
| Original Source: | de Rechtspraak (in Dutch) |
| Initial Contributor: | cwa |
In an advisory opinion, the Public Prosecutor recommended that the Supreme Court find that the provision by 3rd parties of documents relating to the data subject in a civil court case did not infringe the GDPR.
English Summary
Facts
The data subjects held health insurance with a provider. After failing to meet their payments and incurring medical expenses, a civil claim was initiated between the data subjects and their insurance provider. During the course of the proceedings, third-party stakeholders were allowed to submit financial and medical documents for consideration by the court which concerned the data subjects.
On June 1st 2023, the data subjects filed a complaint with the AP (Dutch DPA), alleging that the third parties were wrongfully allowed to provide the documents in the civil proceedings. The DPA assessed the data subject’s complaint but did not conduct a full investigation, claiming firstly that the complaint was not a GDPR issue, and secondly, that the DPA cannot act sufficiently effectively to resolve the dispute.
After the data subject’s objection, the DPA examined the complaint. The DPA assessed the necessity of inclusion of the medical and financial documents by the third party and found that there existed a legitimate interest. In September 2023, the DPA rejected the data subject’s claims that the processing of these files was prohibited on the grounds of Article 9 GDPR, noting that the processing was necessary for the substantiation of a legal claim.
The data subjects appealed this decision to the District Court of Central Netherlands. In their appeal, they sought that the DPA’s decision be overturned and that they be provided compensation for the unlawful use of their personal data.
The data subjects claimed that the documents, by their nature, should disallow their inclusion in the court proceedings by the third party. The documents reveal the medical service which the data subject’s have used and also reveal the specific medication taken by one of them.
Holding
The Public Prosecutor issued their advice to the Supreme Court.
The Public Prosecutor advised that the third parties did hold a legitimate interest for the inclusion of the documents in the civil proceedings.
The Public Prosecutor noted that these documents were necessary in order to establish which claims were still open, and which payments still had to be made. The Public Prosecutor found that the DPA had correctly found that this personal data could be processed by the third parties as it was required for the exercise and substantiation of a legal claim.
After finding that the DPA had not erred in their decision, the Public Prosecutor accordingly recommended that the Supreme Court rule that the data subjects are not entitled to compensation.
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English Machine Translation of the Decision
The decision below is a machine translation of the Dutch original. Please refer to the Dutch original for more details.
