Court case 2021/AR/205 – Court Ruling (Belgium, 2021)

After a contractual relationship with the music company who owned the Facebook fanpage of the musician (including their full name), the latter wanted to get back control of this page. The DPA issued an order to transfer the page (APD/GBA - 14/2020) on the basis of data portability, but this order was annulled by the Court of Appeal. The litigation chamber of the DPA then issued a second decision (APD/GBA - 02/2021) which imposed a fine of €10,000 on the music company for not transferring the fanpage of the musician to them, after they had exercised their right to data portability and right to object. The DPA imposed this second decision based on the lack of consent from the artist to use its name and the termination of the management agreement. The defendant has now appealed this decision. According to the defendant, the DPA was incorrect to find that the lawfulness of the processing of the complainant's personal data under Article 6(1)(b) stopped on 3 November 2019, when the management agreement between the artist and the defendant was terminated. The defendant argues that the termination of the management agreement has no effects on its rights to manage the Facebook page. Its right to maintain the Facebook page was not based on the management agreement. Instead, the intellectual property rights to the musical works of the artist are relevant. As the exclusive licensee of certain musical works of the artist, the defendant is entitled to use the name and image of the performing artist of these musical works for the purpose of marketing and commercialisation of the music. These rights derive from various agreements between the company and claimant (not including the management agreement) which also involve a third party music producer. The Court of Appeal annulled the DPA's decision. It held that, despite the termination of the management agreement, the music company still had a legitimate interest to manage the fanpage. This is because, according to an artist