Oikeusrekisterikeskus – Complaint Upheld (Finland, 2021)

Controller is the Legal Register Centre, a public institution operating for the Finnish Ministry of Justice. It receives information from the courts, on the outcome of court cases in which a debtor challenges a claim. Then, they provide this information to third parties, like companies that hold a credit information register such as Suomen Asiakastieto Oy and Bisnode Finland Oy. These companies use that information to determine the debtor’s creditworthiness, by assessing the debtor’s ability and/or willingness to pay, after which they can enter this information in their credit information register. Now, Article 6(1) of the (Finnish) Credit Information Act only allows for such information on debtors to be registered if the debtor is either unwilling, and/or unable to pay. Hence, not all information is to be transferred to the companies. Therefore, courts assign a particular code to their judgements, to mark whether the conditions of Article 6(1) have been fulfilled. In 2017, the parliamentary ombudsman concluded that, between 2011 and 2017, courts had assigned the wrong codes to judgements, because a factual challenge by the debtor, of the debt obligation, was automatically registered as unwillingness or inability to pay ([https://www.oikeusasiamies.fi/r/fi/ratkaisut/-/eoar/945/2016 decision EOAK/945/2016]). This had led the Legal Register Centre to register, and transfer, inaccurate personal data on these debtors because the conditions laid down in Article 6(1) Credit Information Act had not been fulfilled. According to the Legal Register Centre, it was not responsible for this mistake. First, the DPA noted that the controller must implement appropriate data protection policies, pursuant to Article 24 GDPR, and that there must be technical and organisational measures in place to assure the data protection principles and protect the rights of data subjects. Moreover, the DPA considered that the entry of payment information in the credit information register concer