Dutch Court Annuls the Fine imposed by the Dutch Data Protection Authority on an Amateur Football Streaming Service

District Court Midden-Nederland, 23 November 2020, ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2020:5111

Date of the decision: 2020-11-23

In the Netherlands, an amateur football streaming service, VoetbalTV, has won an important legal battle against the Dutch Data Protection Authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (AP). The AP had imposed a fine of EUR 575,000 on VoetbalTV, which was annulled by the District Court Midden-Nederland (Court) on 23 November 2020.[1] The reason for this is that the AP had applied an incorrect interpretation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The AP had incorrectly assumed that a purely commercial interest can never qualify as a legitimate interest ground for the purposes of data processing under the GDPR.

District Court Midden-Nederland, 23 November 2020, ECLI:NL:RBMNE:2020:5111

The interpretation of the legitimate interest established by the Court in these proceedings is relevant in a broad context. The GDPR applies throughout the European Union, and the interpretation of the term “legitimate interes” should be the same in every Member State. Therefore, the interpretation of the Dutch Court is also relevant to the other Member States. In addition, the ground of legitimate interest is a frequently used ground for processing personal data, both by sports clubs and other relevant parties. The VoetbalTV judgment confirms that the threshold for an interest to be “legitimate”‘ is low. In this article, we will explain the decision of the Court and its consequences in more detail.

Background

VoetbalTV is a video platform for Dutch amateur...

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