Selling of a customers’ database: EU Advocate General Opinion in Case C-693/22 I.

Thursday 22nd February 2024

Opinion in Case C-693/22 I. (Selling a database)

(Principles, objectives and tasks of the Treaties)

This reference for a preliminary ruling is made in the context of a dispute between company I. and Mr W. concerning a claim for payment. Mr W. is a member of the board of directors of NMW, a company specialising in online sales, against which company I. has a claim, confirmed by a final court judgment.

At the request of company I., enforcement proceedings were commenced against NMW. However, the bailiff decided to put an end to the enforcement proceedings on the grounds that NMW had no assets that could be enforced.

In these circumstances, company I. brought an action against M.W., on the basis of national legislation, which provides for the liability of a member of the board of directors of the debtor company in the event of the impossibility of recovering a debt using that company’s assets.

In dismissing this action, the member of the Board of Directors of NMW points out that the company owns, among other things, two databases of users of the

M. platform that NMW has created. These databases contain the personal data of hundreds of thousands of people. However, the users of the M. platform would not have consented to the processing of their data by third parties outside said platform.

Unsure of whether the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR –Regulation (EU) 2016/679) allows a bailiff to sell these databases, as part of an enforcement procedure, the Polish judge turned to the Court of Justice. The referring court requests clarification as to whether the sale of a database containing personal data, as being part of a compulsory execution procedure complies with the provisions of the GDPR, where the data subjects have not provided their consent to such a sale?

Background Documents C-693/22

Donnerstag, 22. Februar 2024

Schlussanträge des Generalanwalts am Gerichtshof in der Rechtssache C-693/22 I. (Verkauf einer Datenbank)

Darf eine Kundendatenbank im Wege der Zwangsvollstreckung veräußert werden?

In einem Rechtsstreit vor einem polnischen Gericht stellt sich die Frage, ob im Rahmen der Zwangsvollstreckung gegen ein Unternehmen wegen einer unbefriedigten Forderung der Gerichtsvollzieher eine Datenbank mit Hunderttausenden von Kundendaten verwerten, d.h. an Dritte veräußern darf.

Das polnische Gericht möchte vom Gerichtshof wissen, ob die Datenschutz-Grundverordnung dem entgegensteht.

Generalanwalt Pikamäe legt heute seine Schlussanträge vor.

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