Główny Geodeta Kraju – Court Ruling (Poland, 2021)

On 24 August 2020, the Polish DPA fined the Chief National Surveyor (Główny Geodeta Kraju, GGK) 100,000 PLN for violating Article 5(1)(a) GDPR and Article 6(1) GDPR by publishing, on its website, numbers of land and mortgage registers without any legal basis. Users of the website, without any additional authorization, had direct access to the land and mortgage registers via hyperlinked numbers. Each register included, inter alia, names and surnames of property owners and their parents, PESEL numbers and real estate addresses. GGK appealed this decision, arguing that the legal basis for the publishing of register numbers on the website was confirmed by Chapter 6 of Annex II to the Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 March 2007 establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in the European Community (INSPIRE). The Court dismissed the appeal and held that the unique numbers identifying land and mortgage registers are personal data. According to the Court, the publication of land and mortgage register numbers allows for easy, indirect identification of property owners. Thus, the land and mortgage register numbers constitute personal data. The Court also stated that GGK had no legal grounds to disclose these register numbers (as the INSPIRE Directive did not relate to the issue in question), and deliberately violated the provisions of the GDPR. It held that the € 22,150 (100,000 PLN) fine which the DPA imposed on GGK is therefore justified. The Court also found that the GGK violated Article 36(4)(16) of the Act of 6 July 1982 on land and mortgage registers. The court found that the argument of the GKK that the restrictions set out in this provision did not apply in this case was incorrect.