Court of Justice in case KNLTB: commercial interest can be legitimate
On October 4 2024, in the case concerning the Royal Dutch Lawn Tennis Association (in Dutch: Koninklijke Nederlandse Lawn Tennis Bond or KNLTB), the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that a purely commercial interest can be a legitimate interest. The CJEU confirms that the Dutch Data Protection Authority’s (in Dutch: Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens or AP) interpretation of this ground no longer holds.
According to the CJEU, what constitutes a legitimate interest does not have to be determined by law. It is up to the national court to determine whether such an interest exists, insofar as it is lawful. And that is just part of the equation: the processing must be strictly necessary to pursue the interest and the interests and fundamental freedoms and fundamental rights of the data subjects (in this case the KNLTB members) may not outweigh that interest. The judgment does not come as a surprise. We have yet to see how the AP will adjust its guidelines on the legal basis. In any case, the ruling has already been included in the European Data Protection Board’s (EDPB) new guidelines on the legitimate interest basis. The public consultation for these guidelines is ongoing until 20 November 2024.