Municipality of Bremen – Court Ruling (Germany, 2025)

The municipality of Bremen (controller) operates of a public waste disposal system. By its decision in January 2022 , the controller issued a waste fee notice for the year 2022 in the total amount of €176,82 against the data subject with regard to his property. In February 2022, the data subject filed an objection against this fee notice before an appeal authority of the controller, arguing that the fee notice had been issued fully automatically, in violation of Article 22 GDPR, and was therefore unlawful. He claimed that his personal data had been processed fully automatically and unlawfully, resulting in an individual administrative decision detrimental legal effects. He also objected to the fully automated processing of his personal data. The controller rejected the data subject's objection as unfounded, in amendment to the fee notice produced by a clerk, dated 8 March 2023. According to the controller, Article 22 GDPR did not apply in the present case, as there was no automated decision in the individual case within the meaning of the provision. The mere program-supported calculation of fees according to a fixed fee schedule does not constitute a decision within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR. In any case, a possible breach of a legal reservation was cured by the notice amending the fee notice. In April 2025, the data subject filed an action before the court (Administrative Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen-VG Bremen) where he challenged the fee notice (consisting of the original fee notice as amended by the later notice produced by the clerk). He persisted that his personal data had been improperly subjected to illegal automated processing, without the involvement of a human being, by the controller, which led to a decision with a direct legal effect on him. The data subject requested that the fee notice was set aside due to a violation of Article 22 GDPR. First, the court found that the initial decision of the controller of January 2022, regardin