Court case C/13/677172 / HA RK 19-435 – Court Ruling (Netherlands, 2020)

Data subject and their spouse applied for membership of the Nederlands Israëlitische Hoofdsynagoge (the Dutch Israeli Main Synagogue), the controller, in 2014. On 22 March 2019 data subject requested that the membership of him and his family be terminated immediately and that all personal data be destroyed as soon as possible. They repeated this request 31 October 2019 after having received no substantive reply of the data controller. On the same day, the data controller replied that they did not store the data subject's personal data any longer than required, but that it is necessary to retain their personal data indefinitely, even after termination of the membership, because this personal data is required to verify "halachic status of [data subject's] descendants". Data subject replied that this had no effect to his request. In response the controller said that they would not be granted. On 17 November 2019, data subject filed a complaint with the AP (Dutch DPA). The complaint was still under consideration at the time of this court case. On 19 December, data subject filed a case and requested the District Court to order the data controller to delete their personal data, and pay claimant €1,500 in damages on the basis of Article 82 GDPR. Data subject argued to have had €250 in material damages for the costs of the trial, €500 in immaterial damages because of "loss of control of their personal data", and €750 in immaterial damages because of stress and uncertainty relating to the trial. The District Court rejected all claims. First, the Court held that data subject no longer had any interest in the erasure request, because the controller deleted the personal data before the Court gave its verdict. Furthermore, the Court ruled that the claimed €250 in material damages were legal costs, and, therefore, do not qualify for damage compensation. Moreover, it held that the claim of €750 in immaterial damages is inherent to filing a court case and finds no basis for compensation in Article 82 GDPR. Lastly, the Court stated that the other claim of €500 in immaterial damages because of "loss of control of personal data", is unsubstantiated. Data subject based this claim on case law where the controller provided personal data unlawfully to third parties, but in this case no such evidence was provided.