#privacy #personal data #webdirectories #righttoforget: Court of Justice of the European Union – CJEU – Judgment in Case C-398/15 Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricolturadi Lecce v Salvatore Manni March 9, 2017
In this ruling, the CJEU confirms the informative role of company registers, which, through the information they provide, including personal data, contribute to trade transparency.
Trade and company registers: legitimacy not in question
This position is classic.
Care will be taken to ensure that it does not benefit private directory companies which abound on the Internet, which buy data from official registers, to ensure increased and untimely publication on the Internet, without the prior authorization of professionals and of the companies concerned, for the sole purpose of attracting traffic to the advertisements they display alongside said data, and in their sole interest.
These private directory companies obviously remain condemnable for the unauthorized use of personal data and for the damage that they are likely to cause and that they actually cause for unsolicited “service”. An alleged freedom of expression or business loyalty cannot derive in law from infringing the freedom of enterprise and the choice of its mode of communication.
More generally, however, one can wonder about the need to indicate in these registers certain personal data of the directors. Managers can indeed be “found” by bailiffs without the publication of the manager's personal address being necessary; a simple collection by the registry and disclosure at the request of a bailiff or judge would be less detrimental to the exercise of the right to protection of privacy. At the present time, the interference of the public authority in the exercise of this right seems excessive and could undoubtedly be challenged before the ECHR.
The personal data of the manager of a legal person
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