College van burgemeester en wethouders van Rotterdam v. Rijkeboer

M. E. E. Rijkeboer (plaintiff) sent a letter to a college (defendant) requesting that the college notify him of all instances in which data relating to him had been disclosed to third parties in the two years preceding the request (i.e., recipient data). Specifically, Rijkeboer wanted to know who requested the data and what had been disclosed. The college had stored this information consistent with a domestic law (although other forms of data were held for a longer period pursuant to domestic law). Pursuant to that law, data of the type that Rijkeboer was requesting was erased after one year. Accordingly, the college granted Rijkeboer’s request only for the recipient data preceding the request by one year, not two. Rijkeboer then brought a claim in domestic court, arguing that the domestic regulation was inconsistent with Article 12 of Directive 95/46/EC (directive). The directive generally granted all individuals a right to access information regarding to whom their personal data was disclosed. The college appealed the domestic court’s decision in favor of Rijkeboer to an appellate domestic court, which concluded that Article 12 had no time limitation regarding recipient-data rights but also that it was unclear whether domestic law could impose such a time limitation. Accordingly, the appellate court referred the matter to the European Union Court of Justice.