Camera di Commercio Lecce (Lecce Chamber of Commerce) – CJEU Judgment (Italy, 2017)
CJEU precedent (Directive 95/46/EC, pre-GDPR)
This is a Court of Justice judgment predating the GDPR. It interprets Directive 95/46/EC (the Data Protection Directive). It is not a cookie or ePrivacy case and is excluded from cookie statistics and the Risk Calculator.
The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the Italian Chamber of Commerce must keep certain company data public, even if it affects reputations. This decision is crucial for business transparency, as it confirms that public registers must remain accessible. It highlights the tension between privacy and the need for public information.
What happened
The Court of Justice ruled that company data in public registers must remain accessible, despite potential reputational harm.
Who was affected
Company directors listed in public registers whose past business activities might affect their current reputation.
What the authority found
The Court held that public access to company registers is necessary for transparency, even if it impacts reputations.
Why this matters
This ruling reinforces the importance of public registers for business transparency, impacting how company data is managed. It highlights the ongoing balance between privacy concerns and the public's right to information.
National Law Articles
Article 2188 of the Italian civil code states that companies must be on a publicly available register. Salvatore Manni was the sole director of a building company, Italiana Costruzioni Srl, which was awarded a contract for the construction of a large building complex. Mr Manni however experienced difficulties selling the units of this building complex. In this context, Manni brought proceedings against the Chamber of Commerce of Lecce, claiming that those poor sale results were due to the fact that he was still presented, in the official company register of the Chamber of Commerce, as the sole director of another company ('Immobiliare Salentina’) which had been declare bankrupt and struck off the register of companies a few years ago. Manni also claimed that a credit scoring company had used these data from the register to give him a negative rating. Mr Manni requested the Lecce Chamber of Commerce in charge of the register to erase, anonymise or block the data linking him to Immobiliare Salentina. He also asked for damages as compensation for the reputational harm he had suffered. The Court of Lecce initially upheld his claim, and ordered the Chamber of Commerce to anonymise his data and to give him 2000 EUR in damages. The Chamber of Commerce appealed this decision to the Court of Cassation. In this context, the Court of Cassation referred the following questions to the CJEU for a preliminary ruling: * Does the obligation to remove data no longer necessary for the purpose stated under Article 6(1)(e) take precedence over the Italian law obligation to include details on the register? * Is there a derogation to the principle under Article 3 Directive 68/151 that there should be no time limit to data published in the companies registered? The Court highlighted that under Article 2(1)(d) Directive 68/151, Member States must make the disclosure by companies of appointments, termination of office, legal proceedings, entering into administration etc... compulsory. A
Outcome
CJEU Judgment
A judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union, typically on a preliminary reference from a national court.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Camera di Commercio Lecce (Lecce Chamber of Commerce) in IT
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Camera di Commercio Lecce (Lecce Chamber of Commerce) - Italy (2017). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
Last updated: