Opinion of the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union on Pseudonymised Data and the Obligation to Provide Information

The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered an Opinion (“Opinion”) in Case C-413/23 P on 6 February 2025. The case concerns the processing of personal data and the obligation to provide information within the framework of the compensation procedure for creditors and shareholders in the context of a bank resolution.

 

The subject matter of the case may be summarised as follows:

 

• In the course of a bank resolution measure, information and comments collected from creditors and shareholders were transmitted in pseudonymised form to an independent valuation body. A complaint was lodged by the data subjects on the ground that such transmission had not been expressly indicated in the privacy notice. The data protection authority found that the controller’s obligation to provide information had been infringed; however, that decision was annulled by the General Court.

 

The essential findings set out in the Opinion are as follows:

 

• Pseudonymised data, by virtue of its continuing link to the data subjects, must still be regarded as personal data.

 

• The obligation to provide information rests with the controller and must be fulfilled irrespective of whether the recipient is in a position to re-identify the data subjects.

 

• The failure to expressly identify the recipients of personal data in the privacy notice constitutes an infringement of the transparency and information obligations established under Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

 

• It was therefore concluded that the General Court erred in law by disregarding this aspect. Consequently, it was proposed by the Advocate General that the judgment be set aside and the case remitted for re-examination in respect of the remaining pleas.

 

You can access the full text of the Opinion here.

Kind regards,

Zumbul Attorneys-at-Law

info@zumbul.av.tr

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