The Munich Higher Regional Court dealt with the question of whether Art. 15 (3) GDPR grants an independent claim to the surrender of copies. It also had to clarify the legal question of whether telephone notes, file notes, minutes, emails, letters and drawing documents are personal data within the meaning of the GDPR.
Plaintiff requests that the defendant provide her with a copy of all personal data
The plaintiff requested the defendants out of court to provide information pursuant to Art. 15 (DPA) and to hand over a copy of all of the plaintiff's personal data held by the defendants. Although the defendants provided the plaintiff with information on the individual data stored by them, copies of the personal data were not provided.
The plaintiff brought an action for damages against the defendants. Furthermore, the plaintiff demands that copies of all personal data of the plaintiff held by the defendants be handed over to her.
Right to copies of collected data under Art. 15 III GDPR?
The Regional Court ordered the defendants to provide the plaintiff with copies of all personal data, in particular in the form of telephone notes, memos, minutes, emails, letters and subscription documents for capital investments. Such a claim arose from Article 15(3) of the GDPR. It remained undisputed between the parties that the defendant was in possession of the relevant documents.
Are telephone notes, file notes, minutes, emails, letters and drawing documents personal data?
The defendants appealed against the first instance decision to the Munich Higher Regional Court. The question of whether an independent claim to the surrender of copies follows from Article 15(3) of the GDPR is disputed in literature and case law (cf. on the state of the dispute BeckOK DatenschutzR/Schmidt-Wudy, 37th ed. 1.8.2021, DS-GVO Art. 15 marginal no. 85 et seq.; and on the overview of case law Leibold, ZD-Aktuell 2021, 05313). The Oberlangdesgericht München follows the view that the person entitled to information is also entitled to an independent claim for the provision of copies pursuant to Art. 15 (3) DSGVO in addition to the claim for information pursuant to Art. 15 (1) DSGVO. Personal data within the meaning of Art. 4 No. GDPR are all information relating to an identified or definable person. The term is to be understood very broadly and therefore also includes telephone notes, memos, minutes, emails, letters and drawing documents.
Federal Supreme Court must decide
Due to the fundamental importance of the case, the Munich Higher Regional Court allowed an appeal to the Federal Supreme Court. This means that the final decision on the scope of the claim under Article 15(3) of the GDPR and the question of which information is to be included under the term personal data now lies with the Federal Supreme Court in Karlsruhe.
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Source: OLG Munich, judgement of 04.10.2020, Az.:3 O 909/19
Attorney at Law Christopher Pillat, LL.M. (Intellectual Property Law)
