President of the bar of Eastern Brabant – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

On 15 December 2017 appellant filed a disciplinary complaint against a lawyer who previously assisted him in a criminal case. In a letter from 17 September 2018, the president of the local bar shared his position statement on the complaint. On 6 May 2019 appellant submitted a request for rectification under Article 16 of GDPR, because, according to appellant, a specific sentence was missing in the statement. In the decision of 24 May 2019, the president of the bar of Eastern Brabant rejected the appellant’s request to rectification. The president of the bar of Eastern Brabant is of the opinion that his position statement does not constitute personal data of the appellant, which means the right to rectification is not applicable. Appellant believes that the right to rectification must be respected and that the president of the bar interprets the term “rectification” too narrowly, excluding the completion of incomplete data. The Council of State ruled that the rectification request to have the incomplete personal data completed cannot be extended to supplementing documents. The president of the bar was correct: Article 16 GDPR does not allow appellant to add a sentence in the president’s statement.