‘No abuse of rights when using a right to information under Art. 15 para. 1, 3 GDPR for motives unrelated to data protection”:
Dr. Philipp Engelhoven (Esche Schümann Commichau) and Dr. Oliver Pragal have written an article in ZIP (Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht) on this interesting decision by the Higher Regional Court of Nuremberg (judgement of 29.11.2023 – 4 U 347/21).
The article deals with Art. 15 (1) and (3) GDPR, which grants data subjects the right to information regarding the personal data stored about them and the associated right to receive a copy of this data. According to the decision of the Higher Regional Court of Nuremberg, it does not constitute abuse under Art. 12 para. 5 GDPR if the data subject (also) uses the right of access for motives unrelated to data protection. The data subject also does not have to specify the data; they can request complete information. The effort this causes the controller is irrelevant in this respect.
This opens up interesting strategic options for a variety of constellations in legal counselling practice.
Due to the scope of the claim described above, the data that can be requested also includes statements and expert opinions from consultants and legal advisors, if these (possibly partially) relate to him. This could even include the results of internal investigations by the employer. For example, the (ex-)employee can use this to make a very good assessment of what data the company has and thus improve not only his negotiating position and defence strategy in civil proceedings, but also his criminal defence if necessary.
