Court case 10 O 4/24 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2024)

On 22 November 2019, a data subject entered into a mobile phone contract with the controller (a telecommunications company). The telecommunications company transmitted to 2 credit information agencies so called 'positive data' about the data subject, in particular information about the commissioning and execution of the contract which included data required to identify the respective person. The data subject received a leaflet regarding the transmission of data to S with a reference to a right of objection. On 19 October 2023, one of the credit information agencies published a press release stating that it would delete customer account information relating to the constoller. This decision was due to following the assessment of the Data Protection Conference of the German States (DSK) and the body of the independent German federal and state data protection supervisory authorities that the transmission and processing of data from the telecommunications sector by credit information agencies for credit scoring cannot be based on a "legitimate interest" according to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR and consent is required. The data subject filed a case before the court of first instance (Regional Court of Itzehoe- LG Itzehoe) requesting that the controller is ordered to compensate them for immaterial damages for the data protection breach, cease and desist transmitting their personal data to the credit information agencies and compensate them for all future damages that the plaintiff has suffered and/or will suffer as a result of the unauthorized transmission. They claim that they did not consent to having their personal data shared with the credit information agencies and that the transmission is unlawful and violated Article 6(1) and Article 5(1)(a) GDPR. They alleged it caused non-material damage in the form of loss of control over their data deriving from the transmission, impact on economic decisions and financial freedom, and suffering fear of data loss and sleep dis