Finland: Requested Interim Ruling in Public Lawsuit Involving Oral Transfer of Personal Data (Endemol Shine Finland Oy v Finland)

On 30 November 2022, the Court of Appeal of Finland requested an interim ruling from the European Court of Justice (CJEU) on a case involving oral transfer of personal data. Endemol Shine Finland sought the Court of Appeal of Eastern Finlandto verify the criminal record of an individual involved in one of their competitions by making an oral request to a district court in Finland for information on any ongoing or completed criminal proceedings against that person. The request was denied on the grounds that disclosing such information would involve processing personal data. The CJEU was asked to clarify if an oral transfer of personal data constitutes processing of personal data within the meaning of Article 2(1) and Article 4(2) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and if public access to official documents can be reconciled with the right to protection of personal data by allowing information on criminal convictions or offences of a natural person to be obtained from a court’s register of persons without restriction where a request is made to transfer the information orally to the applicant. In this context it also posed the question if it is relevant, whether the applicant is a company or a private individual.