Case C‑398/15

Camera di Commercio, Industria, Artigianato e Agricoltura di Lecce

v

Salvatore Manni

(Request for a preliminary ruling

from the Corte suprema di cassazione)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling — Protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data — Directive 95/46/EC — Article 6(1)(e) — Data subject to disclosure in the companies register — First Directive 68/151/EEC — Article 3 — Winding-up of the company concerned — Restriction of access to that data by third parties)

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Second Chamber), 9 March 2017

Approximation of laws — Protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data — Directive 95/46 — Personal data subject to disclosure in the companies register pursuant to Directive 68/151 — Winding-up of the company concerned — Possibility for the natural persons concerned to request the authority responsible for maintaining the register, on the basis of a case-by-case assessment and by way of exception, to restrict access to the data relating to them, entered in that register, to third parties who can demonstrate a specific interest in consulting that data — Conditions — Compelling legitimate grounds relating to the particular situation of the natural persons concerned — Expiry of a sufficiently long period after the dissolution of the company concerned — Whether or not there is such limitation of access in the national legal order decided by each Member State

(European Parliament and Council Directive 95/46, Art. 6(1)(e), 12(b), and 14, first para, subparagraph (a); Council Directive 68/151, as amended by Directive 2003/58, Art. 2(1)(d) and (j), and Art. 3)

Article 6(1)(e), Article 12(b) and subparagraph (a) of the first paragraph of Article 14 of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, read in conjunction with Article 3 of the First Council Directive 68/151/EEC of 9 March 1968 on co-ordination of safeguards which, for the protection of the interests of members and others, are required by Member States of companies within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article 58 of the Treaty, with a view to making such safeguards equivalent throughout the Community, as amended by Directive 2003/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 July 2003, must be interpreted as meaning that, as EU law currently stands, it is for the Member States to determine whether the natural persons referred to in Article 2(1)(d) and (j) of that directive may apply to the authority responsible for keeping, respectively, the central register, commercial register or companies register to determine, on the basis of a case-by-case assessment, if it is exceptionally justified, on compelling legitimate grounds relating to their particular situation, to limit, on the expiry of a sufficiently long period after the dissolution of the company concerned, access to personal data relating to them, entered in that register, to third parties who can demonstrate a specific interest in consulting that data.

(see para 64, operative part)