Minister for Legal Protection – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

The Appellant filed several Freedom of Information Act requests with the municipality of Borsele; he also filed an access request under the previous data protection law. On 16 August 2016 the municipality responded that they processed the Appellant’s name and address for the purpose of registering his FOA requests and creating, registering and sending FOA-related letters. The municipality also shared his details on the closed forum of the Association of the Municipalities of the Netherlands, but the municipality of Borsele would not let him know the specifics. The State Council heard this dispute on 5 March 2019. The municipality clarified that two messages relating to the Appellant’s request were posted on the forum: one contained the Appellant’s name; another one only mentioned the name of his legal consultancy firm. The Appellant claimed non-material damages resulting from loss of control over his personal data and delays in providing him with the information about the forum messages. The State Council had to assess this claim. The State Council decided that breach of GDPR does not automatically imply an impairment of the integrity of a person which would lead to compensation of damages. The facts that an infringement of GDPR can result in non-material damage and that a data subject must receive full and effective compensation of the damages under GDPR, do not mean that violation of the law always results in damages. The damage caused must be real and certain. The State Council also pointed out that the Appellant has failed to demonstrate that the failure to provide complete information about his personal data processing in a timely manner had caused damages. The claim for compensation was rejected.