Council of Mayor and Aldermen of Heemskerk – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

The Council of Mayor and Aldermen of Heemskerk (which exercises the executive power of the municipal government) declined the request of the appellant to access his personal data. The data subject attached a copy of an expired passport to this request, but the Council of Mayor and Aldermen of Heemskerk announced that it was unable to establish the applicant's identity properly with an expired passport. It therefore requested the appellant to send a certified copy of a valid identity document (i.e. copy of an original document that has been authorised or stamped as being a true copy of the original, by a qualified individual) or to visit the town hall in person. The appellant then sent a copy of a valid passport, without further explanations. The Council however decided not to consider the request. It took the view that it was not possible to properly establish the identity of the applicant with the information at its disposal. Although a copy of a valid passport had been submitted, it had emerged from the administration that the signature on the request and on the passport did not match the signature on previously submitted requests by a person with the same name who lives at the same address. According to the Council, it was therefore necessary to establish the identity of the applicant by means of one of the two options offered (certified copy or visit at the town hall). Is a data controller entitled to request the data subject to send a certified copy of an identity document or to visit its building in person to establish its identity, or are these two options so impeding that it affects the right of the data subject to freely request access to his data? On appeal, the Council of Mayor and Aldermen took the view that the appellant misused his rights because he made the access request with a view not to take cognisance of the personal data processed concerning him, but merely to collect penalty payments and obtaining reimbursement of legal costs from the public authorities (financial motive only). The District Court of Noord-Holland and the Council of State however ruled that there was insufficient ground to reach this conclusion. The District Court of Noord-Holland and the Council of State considered that the Council of Mayor and Aldermen of Heemskerk could reasonably take the view that the different signatures gave rise to doubts as to the identity of the applicant and that a copy of the passport alone was not sufficient in this case. It could therefore reasonably ask the applicant to send a certified copy of an identity document or to visit the town hall in person, to guarantee a proper establishment of his identity. The two options given by the Council were not disproportionately onerous. Although the distance to the town hall was considerable for the appellant, the alternative of a certified copy did not involve such high costs that the right of the data subject to freely request access to his data was infringed. The Council of Mayor and Aldermen was therefore entitled to disregard the access request.