Case C-621/22, Koninklijke Nederlandse Lawn Tennisbond: Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 4 October 2024 (request for a preliminary ruling from the rechtbank Amsterdam – Netherlands) – Koninklijke Nederlandse Lawn Tennisbond v Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Article 5(1)(a) – Lawfulness of processing – Point (f) of the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) – Necessity of processing for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party – Concept of legitimate interests – Commercial interest – Sports federation – Disclosure, for consideration, of the personal data of the members of a sports federation to sponsors without the consent of those members)
Date: 2024-10-04
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: data protection, data-processing law, disclosure of information, personal data, sponsorship, sports body








C_202500686EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/686


10.2.2025






Judgment of the Court (Ninth Chamber) of 4 October 2024 (request for a preliminary ruling from the rechtbank Amsterdam – Netherlands) – Koninklijke Nederlandse Lawn Tennisbond v Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens


(Case C-621/22,
                (1)
Koninklijke Nederlandse Lawn Tennisbond)

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 - Article 5(1)(a) - Lawfulness of processing - Point (f) of the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) - Necessity of processing for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party - Concept of ‘legitimate interests’ - Commercial interest - Sports federation - Disclosure, for consideration, of the personal data of the members of a sports federation to sponsors without the consent of those members)
(C/2025/686)
Language of the case: Dutch

Referring court

Rechtbank Amsterdam

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: Koninklijke Nederlandse Lawn Tennisbond

Defendant: Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens

Operative part of the judgment

Point (f) of the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation)
must be interpreted as meaning that the processing of personal data which consists in the disclosure, for consideration, of personal data of the members of a sports federation, in order to satisfy a commercial interest of the controller, may be regarded as necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by that controller, within the meaning of that provision, only on condition that that processing is strictly necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interest in question and that, in the light of all the relevant circumstances, the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of those members do not override that legitimate interest. While that provision does not require that such an interest be determined by law, it requires that the alleged legitimate interest be lawful.


(1)  
            OJ C 7, 9.1.2023.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/686/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)