Minister of Finance – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2026)

The personal data of an individual was stored in the Fraud Detection System (FSV), an application used by the Dutch Tax Authority between 2012 and 2020 to record potential indicators of tax fraud. The Minister of Finance was the controller. The data subject submitted an access request under Article 15 GDPR. In particular, she requested information about the personal data processed, the purposes of the processing, the recipients of the data, its source and retention period, and any automated decision-making concerning her. The controller provided an overview of the personal data stored in the FSV and answered the data subject’s questions. The data subject objected to the decision, claiming that the controller had not disclosed all information relating to her registration. The controller rejected the objection. It explained that the data subject had been selected for a manual review of her tax return under Project 1043, an anti-fraud initiative launched by the Dutch Tax, and was consequently registered in the FSV. It also stated that the data was accessible only to employees of the Tax Authority and had not been disclosed to other organisations. The District Court of Amsterdam dismissed the data subject’s appeal. It held that the proceedings concerned compliance with the GDPR access request and not the lawfulness of her inclusion in the FSV or any alleged resulting damage. The data subject appealed this judgment before the Council of State. The Council of State dismissed the appeal and upheld the judgment of the District Court. The Court held that there was no evidence that the controller had incorrectly applied Article 15 GDPR. The controller had provided an overview of all personal data concerning the data subject processed in the FSV, explained the purposes of the processing and clarified the circumstances of her registration under Project 1043. Although the data subject suspected that the controller held additional information, she did not provide concrete evidence supporting this claim. The Court also found no indication that she had been classified as a fraudster or that her personal data had been disclosed to other organisations. The Court further clarified that the lawfulness of the data subject’s registration in the FSV, the deletion of her data and any claim for compensation fell outside the scope of the access proceedings. Consequently, the Court confirmed the contested judgment and did not award litigation costs.