Court case 15 K 194/20 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2022)
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 court in Germany ruled on a case involving a regional tax authority that refused to give a person full access to their tax files. The person wanted to see all notes and correspondence related to their case. This ruling underscores the need for transparency in how authorities handle personal data requests.
What happened
The regional tax authority in Bavaria denied a person's request to access full details of their tax files, including internal notes.
Who was affected
The person who requested access to their tax files from the Bavarian tax authorities.
What the authority found
The court considered the refusal to provide full access to the requested documents, focusing on the transparency obligations under GDPR.
Why this matters
This case highlights the importance of transparency in data handling by public authorities and may encourage others to challenge refusals to access personal data. It stresses the need for authorities to justify their decisions when denying access.
GDPR Articles Cited
National Law Articles
The controller was a regional tax authority in Bavaria, the Bayerisches Landesamt für Steuern (BayLfSt). The BayLfSt held tax dossiers concerning the tax case of the data subject. These dossiers contained internal correspondence, third party statements, notes, and handwritten comments from itself and other Bavarian tax authorities, namely the lower regional tax authority Finanzamt Neu-Ulm and the higher regional tax authority Bayerisches Staatsministerium der Finanzen für Landesentwicklung und Heimat (BayStMFLH). These dossiers also included a complaint via email by the data subject against the BayStMFLH from 2016 and complaints, a challenge on grounds of bias and a demand for a penalty against employees of the Finanzamt Neu-Ulm from 2019. The data subject requested access to dossiers from the Finanzamt Neu-Ulm on 28.10.2019. The BayLfSt received a request to access under Article 15(1) GDPR on 07.11.2019. The data subject wanted to access information on which department processed the dossiers. The data subject specifically requested a colour copy with the aim to differentiate between notes of responsible employees. On 17.12.2019, the data subject received a reply from BayLfSt. The BayLfSt confirmed that it held information about the complaints, the correspondence between the data subject and the authorities, and the correspondence between both authorities. The BayLfSt also confirmed the existence of internal notes and internal correspondence between the two authorities (Finanzamt Neu-Ulm and BayLfSt) concerning the data subject's access request in the dossiers. No further information was disclosed. The reply included instruction on the right to appeal. On 13.01.2022, the data subject filed a lawsuit against the Finanzamt Neu-Ulm and the BayStMFLH in regard to the notice of rejection from 17.12.2019. The court registered the lawsuits separately. The case under consideration is the law suit against the BayLfSt. The data subject based his demands on the suspicion that
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Court case 15 K 194/20 in DE
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case 15 K 194/20 - Germany (2022). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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