Dutch Minister of Finance – €2,750,000 Fine (Netherlands, 2021)

The Dutch DPA (AP) has fined the Minister of Finance EUR 2,75 million. In the context of childcare benefit applications, tax offices had processed data on the dual nationality of applicants for several years. However, the DPA found that the data on dual nationality of Dutch citizens would not have been necessary when assessing an application for childcare benefits. The said data had also been processed for the purpose of combating organized fraud and for automatic classification in the authority's risk system. However, even for these purposes, the processing would not have been necessary. For this reason, the tax and customs administration should have deleted the data on dual nationality as early as January 2014. Nevertheless, as of May 2018, the dual citizenship data of a total of 1,4 million people were still registered in the systems of the tax and customs administration. The DPA therefore found that the data had been unlawfully processed due to the lack of a valid legal basis. Furthermore the DPA stated that the data subjects had been discriminated against on the basis of their nationality.