Important comment by the Belgian Market Court in a new judgment, here on confidentiality of controller/processor documents vis-�-vis a complainant: “the general principle regarding the prohibition of the abuse of rights prevents a complainant [�] from using the complaint to obtain information that it would not be able to obtain lawfully by other means”.
The GDPR and (most) national data protection laws do not provide for clear rules on confidentiality of documents, and many countries have rules on the production of evidence in the context of judicial proceedings.
Yet even in the absence of specific protections, this judgment of the Market Court is a useful reminder that general principles of law can provide a general shield against requests that are too broad. Privacy and data protection are not the only rights and freedoms that matter – other rights (and obligations) need to be taken into account too.
(Judgment not yet published, but will undoubtedly be published very soon)
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