Requests and Social Affairs Department of the King's Office – Dismissed (Belgium, 2023)
General GDPR enforcement action
This case relates to broader data protection obligations, not specifically to cookie or consent banner compliance. It is not included in cookie statistics or the Risk Calculator.
A department of the King's office in Belgium shared a person's complaint letters with another government body without responding to their data access request. The Belgian data protection authority dismissed the complaint, citing the King's constitutional immunity. This case highlights the limits of privacy laws when governmental immunity is involved.
What happened
The King's office shared a person's complaint letters with another government body without responding to their data access request.
Who was affected
An individual who sent complaint letters containing personal data to the King's office.
What the authority found
The Belgian data protection authority dismissed the complaint due to the King's constitutional immunity.
Why this matters
This case illustrates that privacy laws may have limitations when governmental immunity is involved. Individuals should be aware of these exceptions when dealing with government bodies.
GDPR Articles Cited
Entities Involved
The controller in this case was a department of the King's office that deals with social affairs. A data subject had a dispute with a public authority, more precisely, the Government of the German-speaking Community (hereafter, the "Government") which had only partially responded to his request for information. The data subject wrote several complaint letters to the King. These letters contained personal data: his surname, first name and address. In an attempt to solve the matter, the King's office (controller) that had received these letters transferred them to the Government. The data subject became aware of such disclosure and subsequently submitted an access request with the controller in accordance with Article 15 GDPR. Among the other things, he specifically inquired about the transfer of his data to the Government. The controller did not respond to his requests. The data subject also doubted the overall lawfulness of the processing. In particular, he argued that the transfer of his data was not necessary, since the controller could have simply interceded with the Government to remind it to respond to the requests for information. He therefore filed a complaint with the Belgian DPA. During the investigation, the controller argued that the King's Office and its services benefit from the immunity from jurisdiction granted to the King under Article 88 of the Belgian Constitution. Lawfulness The DPA examined the existence of a legal basis on the basis of Article 6(1)(e) GDPR, which requires that the processing operation is carried out in the public interest and that it is necessary for the performance of that task. On the subject of the public task, the DPA referred to a report which states that the King has a duty to form an opinion on the case brought to his attention. The controller was part of the King's services and was responsible for the task of dealing with requests for social assistance addressed to the King. Since the data subject sent his request to
Outcome
Dismissed
The complaint or investigation was dismissed.
Related Enforcement Actions (0)
No other enforcement actions found for Requests and Social Affairs Department of the King's Office in BE
This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Requests and Social Affairs Department of the King's Office - Belgium (2023). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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