COOPERATIVE RABOBANK UA – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

The claimant was registered in the Central Credit Information System (hereinafter CKI) of the BKR (Credit Registration Office) because of two instances on which he had defaulted on repaying an overdraft. BKR then issued the claimant with a revolving credit, set to begin in 2012 and end in 2019, and visible until 2024. The registration of the revolving credit contained an arrears code (signalling that money is owed and should have been paid earlier) which would remain visible on his account until 2021. When the claimant paid back the full amount in 2020, he asked to have the arrear code removed from his file. Rabobank refused to remove the code, which led to the complainant filing a complaint. Pursuant to Article 21(1) of the GDPR, persons such as [the claimant] can object to the processing of their personal data on the basis of Article 6(1)(e) or (f) GDPR due to their specific situation . The controller, in this case Rabobank, must honor the objection, unless it submits compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that outweigh the interests, rights and freedoms of the persons concerned. If the objection is granted, the controller must delete the personal data without unreasonable delay. If the controller does not honor the objection, the data subject may, if necessary, ask the court for an effective remedy (Article 79 GDPR and Article 35 UAVG). The court assesses whether the controller has demonstrated that its compelling legitimate interests (in this case the dual purpose of the credit registration: to protect the consumer against excessive credit and to warn other credit institutions) in this specific case outweigh the interests or the fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject (recital 69 GDPR). Whether it was proportionate for the BKR registration to be maintained, given the fact that the claimant had paid back her arrear and the current registration was preventing her from taking out housing credit? After weighing up the interests involved, R