VoetbalTV – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

VoetbalTV, an initiative of the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) and broadcasting company Talpa Network, is recording and broadcasting amateur football. The Dutch DPA fined VoetbalTV for processing personal data without a valid lawful basis. The Dutch DPA published guidance in which it states that a legitimate interest is only legitimate if it stems from a legal provision. Also, a purely commercial interest can never be a legitimate interest, according to the Dutch DPA. VoetbalTV appealed the decision. Does a legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) need to stem from a legal provision and can a purely commercial interest result in a legitimate interest? The court does not agree with the restrictive interpretation of legitimate interest by the Dutch DPA. Any interest can be a legitimate interest as long as it is not against the law (negative test). The Dutch DPA should have performed a balancing test in order to balance the interests pursued by VoetbalTV against the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subjects. Because the DPA did not perform such a balancing test, the court annulled the decision and the imposed fine. The court annulled the decision and decided to judge the case itself (Article 8:72a Dutch General Administrative Law Act). Then the court decided to not take a new decision in order to replace the annulled decision, noting that the fine is now completely off the table.