Court case 1 B 72/21 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2021)
General GDPR enforcement action
This case relates to broader data protection obligations, not specifically to cookie or consent banner compliance. It is not included in cookie statistics or the Risk Calculator.
A German court allowed a press representative to access the names and residential areas of people organizing COVID-19 protests, but not their full addresses. This decision shows that public interest can sometimes outweigh privacy rights, especially for public events. It highlights the balance between privacy and transparency in public matters.
What happened
The court granted access to the names and residential areas of protest organizers but denied access to their full addresses.
Who was affected
The affected individuals were the organizers of public assemblies protesting COVID-19 policies.
What the authority found
The court decided that the public's right to information outweighed the organizers' privacy rights, as the protests were of significant public interest.
Why this matters
This ruling underscores the importance of transparency in public matters and suggests that organizers of public events may have limited privacy. It highlights the need for balancing privacy with the public's right to know.
GDPR Articles Cited
National Law Articles
The data subjects notified the competent local authority (controller) about three public assemblies they were organising on the 4th, 11th and 18th of December 2021 to protest against the COVID-19 policies. On December 14th a press representative sent an email to the authority asking for the names of the data subjects. The authority, however, refused to provide the information on the grounds of the data subject's right to privacy. As a consequence, the press representative filed for interim relief in court on the same day to learn the names and full addresses of the data subjects. The Administrative Court of Osnabrück (Verwaltungsgericht Osnabrück - VG Osnabrück) granted interim relief regarding the names and the residential areas, which the data subjects live in, but not regarding their full addresses. The court held that the plaintiff has a right to information according to [https://www.nds-voris.de/jportal/?quelle=jlink&query=PresseG+ND+%C2%A7+4&psml=bsvorisprod.psml&max=true § 4 NPresseG] (Press Law of the state of Lower Saxony) and that the GDPR does not preclude this right. § 4(1) NPresseG obliges authorities to provide representatives of the press with the information which they need to fulfill their task. § 4(2)(no. 3) NPresseG lays down that access can be denied by the authority if it would infringe a private interest which deserves protection. The court concluded that the interest of the public to information outweighs the interest of the data subjects to privacy, including the their right to informational self-determination, because the topic of COVID-19 is of paramount public interest right now and the data subjects have placed themselves in the public eye by organising the assemblies. The court further reasoned that the GDPR does not preclude the plaintiff's right to information because § 4 NPresseG is to be seen as a legal basis for the processing under Article 6(3),(1)(c) or (e) GDPR and because the GDPR and the processing for journalistic purposes
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Court case 1 B 72/21 in DE
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case 1 B 72/21 - Germany (2021). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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