Cerved Group S.p.A – €400,000 Fine (Italy, 2026)

The DPA received several complaints from data subjects concerning Cerved Group S.p.A. (the controller) an Italian credit rating agency. The controller was processing the personal data of data subjects for the purpose of verifying the creditworthiness of potential customers of two energy suppliers. As a result of the risk profiles attributed to them, data subjects were declined the supply of energy. When data subjects requested access to their data from the controller under Article 15 GDPR, they were informed that their databases did not contain negative information or adverse events justifying the denial of energy supply. The DPA conducted an investigation, and found that the controller provided different responses to different data subjects depending on whether their personal data had been recorded in their system. For data subjects where there was no negative information on them the controller claimed that no personal data processing had been conducted for commercial information purposes. Nevertheless, a score based on their residential address, age and place of birth was generated. For those data subjects where information was present on their databases the controller provided them with the personal data which was present. The DPA further found that the controller did not provide reference to the scores and sub-scores assigned by the controller to the data subjects. The DPA held that in light of the controller inadequately responding to data subjects requests, which prevented them from accessing all the information processed for the purpose of calculating their risk profile, and to understand how the score was used in the decisions of the energy suppliers, data subjects were effectively prevented from exercising their rights. Particularly, the DPA held that the controller did not provide data subjects with all the necessary information, such as certain scores, and the logic and criteria used to calculate the scores, which prevented them from determining the lawfulness, fairness and accuracy of the data. This undermined their ability to exercise their right to rectification pursuant to Article 16 GDPR, and right to obtain human intervention, express their opinion and challenge the decision made, pursuant to Article 22(3) GDPR. In connection with sensitive nature of the information processed by the controller (residential address, age and place of birth) which relates to a data subjects creditworthiness with potentially prejudicial consequences, the controller was found in violation of Article 5(1)(a) GDPR, Article 12 GDPR and Article 15 GDPR. The DPA imposed a €400,000 fine on the controller pursuant to Article 83 GDPR taking into account, inter alia, the fact that this affected 2.094 data subjects. The DPA further ordered the controller to establish a procedure allowing data subjects to exercise their right to rectification pursuant to Article 16 GDPR.