Judicial pose: "Deletion claim" at commercial register portal is not enforceable

Since August 2022, users have been able to access all entries in the register of associations, companies, cooperatives and partnerships worldwide without restrictions via the handelregister.de platform. Not all those affected like this, as sensitive personal data is also freely accessible. Thilo Weichert, former data protection commissioner of Schleswig-Holstein, therefore went all the way to the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) and in June 2024 won the right for himself to have his data only be accessible to a limited extent after 20 years. But months later, this data can still be accessed, as the judiciary is unable to make headway in the confusion of federal and state competencies and technical pitfalls lurk. Weichert complains: "If the government's 'digital only' approach means that everything is simply put online regardless of any losses, then this will not end well for citizens."

The controversial civil rights activist was chairman of the German Association for Data Protection (Deutsche Vereinigung für Datenschutz, DVD) from 1993 to 2004 and is still active on its board. In a legal opinion in December 2022, he came to the conclusion that the unconditional publication of data, for example of all association board members at all times, including sensitive identity data such as date of birth or home address, was extremely questionable under constitutional and European law. At the same time, the DVD launched a public campaign on these encroachments on privacy. Weichert himself also took a stand and in January 2023 called on the Bonn District Court and the North Rhine-Westphalia judicial administration, as the bodies responsible for data protection, to stop the worldwide publication of his data.

Competent court lacks technical possibilities

It was only the Federal Court of Justice that essentially ruled in Weichert's favor after going through the courts and an appeal. The Karlsruhe judges ruled that his now irrelevant data did not have to be deleted immediately (case reference: II ZB 10/23). However, in the event of an objection by a data subject, the judicial administration may only transmit the disputed information if an applicant can credibly demonstrate a legitimate interest. It follows that the data on the old DVD board activity would at least have to disappear from the Internet.

The plaintiff regularly checked whether the responsible NRW authority was complying with the supreme court order. After this had not been the case even after eight months, he complained to the competent local court in Bonn and received only a vague explanation from there, together with a reference to notices that had been served late: the registration court lacked the technical possibilities and requirements to technically implement the order of the Federal Court of Justice in the register portal of the federal states. For this reason, the "local procedural care office" was commissioned with the technical implementation. However, even regular reminders from the local court had not provided "any information on the current status of the proceedings there". Weichert is "dumbfounded" that the judiciary is unable to have "a single document removed from the internet". It is not the citizen, but the state that should be transparent.

(mma)