Municipal Executive of the Municipality of Almere – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2019)

The plaintiff had requested erasure of his personal data according to Article 17 GDPR claiming that the forwarding of data via e-mail to other municipalities and the publication on the VNG forum of his personal data constituted unlawful processing. He also claimed compensation for damages occurred from the unlawful processing on the basis of Article 82 GDPR. The defendant had rejected the request because the processing at stake was lawful and thus the requirement of Article 17(1)(d) GDPR was not fulfilled. According to the defendant, the lawfulness should be assessed on the basis of the Dutch Data Protection Act and not of the GDPR as the processing at stake took place before the GDPR came into force. Does the GDPR apply to events that happened before 25. 5. 2018? The Court found that the GDPR also applies to legal consequences of events which occurred before it came into force. The Dutch transitional law lists cases where the Act would still apply after the enforcement of the GDPR, but the present case is not among them. However, the lawfulness of the processing is based on a factual assessment and the facts took place before the GDPR. Hence, the facts should be examined in on the basis of the Act, while the legal consequences, such as the right to erasure and the right to compensation, on the basis of the GDPR. The Court ruled that the processing at stake was compliant with the Act and thus lawful. Consequently, the defendant rightly rejected the request to erasure based on Article 17(1)(d) GDPR. Finally, for the factual assessment of the right to compensation the plaintiff should apply before the civil and not the administrative courts according to the Dutch Data Protection Act (Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens - Wbp).