'Right to be forgotten' in companies register limited: EU Court
Justice - Photo © James Steidl - Fotolia
(LUXEMBOURG) - There is no right to be forgotten in respect of personal data in the companies register, although restricted access is possible after a company's dissolution, the EU's top court ruled on Thursday.
In 2007, Salvatore Manni, director of a company awarded a contract for construction of a tourist complex in Italy, brought an action against the Lecce Chamber of Commerce.
His belief was that the properties were not sold because the companies register showed that he had been administrator of another company that went bankrupt in 1992 and was wound up in 2005.
The Court of Lecce in Italy ordered the Lecce Chamber of Commerce to anonymise the data linking Mr Manni to the liquidation of the first company and to pay compensation for the damage suffered by Mr Manni.
The Lecce Chamber of Commerce's appeal resulted in referral to the EU Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling: asking whether the directive on the protection of personal data and the directive on disclosure of company documents precluded access, without time limit, to data relating to natural persons set out in the companies register.
In the EU Court's s judgment, it notes first that company registers are intended to ensure legal certainty in dealings between companies and third parties and to protect, in particular, the interests of third parties in relation to joint stock companies and limited liability companies.
The Court further notes that matters requiring the availability of personal data in the companies register may arise for many years after a company has ceased to exist.
Having regard to the range of legal rights and relations which may involve a company with actors in several Member States (even after its dissolution), and the diversity of limitation periods provided for by the various national laws, it seems impossible to identify a single period after which the entry of the data in the register and their disclosure would no longer be necessary.
In those circumstances, Member States cannot guarantee that natural persons whose data are included in the company register have the right to obtain, after a certain period of time from the dissolution of the company, the erasure of personal data concerning them.
The Court considers that this interference with the fundamental rights of the persons concerned (in particular the right to respect for private life and the right to protection of personal data guaranteed by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the Union) is not disproportionate in so far as only a limited number of personal data items are entered in the company register and it is justified that natural persons who choose to participate in trade through such a joint stock company or limited liability company, whose only safeguards for third parties are the assets of that company, should be required to disclose data relating to their identity and functions within that company.
Nevertheless, the Court makes clear that it does not exclude the possibility that, on a case-by-case assessment, and in specific situations, overriding and legitimate reasons relating to the specific case of the person concerned may justify, exceptionally, that access to personal data concerning him should be limited, upon expiry of a sufficiently long period after the dissolution of the company in question, to third parties who can demonstrate a specific interest in consulting that data.
The Court states that it is for each EU Member State to decide if it wants such a limitation of access in its national legal system. In the present case, the Court considers that the mere fact that the properties of the tourist complex do not sell because potential purchasers have access to the data of Mr Manni in the companies register cannot justify a limitation of access by third parties to that data, in particular given the legitimate interest of those purchasers in availing of that information.