Court case c/13/673085 / HA ZA 19-340 – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

The applicant requested to delete a previous court decision from the website "rechtspraak.nl" according to Article 17 (1) GDPR, because the applicant claims that he/she could be identified by it and therefore creates a reason to deport him/her. The issue in this case is whether the State is obliged to remove, in whole or in part, the judment of 28 June 2019 of the District Court of The Hague, published in accordance with the anonymisation guidelines, from www.rechtspraak.nl. The court hold that to the extent that the applicant is reasonably identifiable person the applicant cannot obtain the deletion of the data referred to in Article 17 GDPR, because Article 17 (3) (b) GDPR precludes this. By publishing the decision, the District Court of The Hague fulfils its constitutional obligation that judicial decisions must be taken publicly (Article 6 (1) ECHR, Article 14(1) International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 21 Dutch Basic Law and Article 5(1) of the Law on the Organisation of the Judiciary). Consequently, the applicant does not have the right to incorrect information under Article 17(1) GDPR.