DPA case 88/2025 – Dismissed (Belgium, 2025)

A company (the controller) offered a screen capture software. The controller offered both a free plan and a paid plan with additional features. In particular, free users could only view their screenshots via the controller’s website while paying users could download them. The data subject was a user of the free version. They requested a copy of their screenshots from the controller. The controller refused on grounds that downloading screenshots was a premium feature reserved for paying users. The data subject then filed a complaint, claiming that the controller violated his right of access and his right to data portability. The DPA did not examine the complaint on the meritsBelgian law (Art. 95, § 1 LCA) allows the DPA to dismiss certain on complaints over reasons of opportunity, without dealing with the merits of the case.. Rather, it dismissed it on grounds that the data subject's request constituted an abuse of rights under the GDPR. In this regard, the DPA followed CJEU case lawSee: CJEU, Joint Cases C-115/16 and C-118/16, C-119/16 and C-299/16, N Luxembourg1 and Others, 26 February 2019, magin number 139 (available [https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=211053&pageIndex=0&doclang=en&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=3691155 here]); CJEU, C-416/23, Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde, 9 January 2025, margin number 50 (available [https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=294111&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=3690210 here]). and held that the request fulfilled both the subjective and objective elements of an abuse of rights.