Case C-710/23, Ministerstvo zdravotnictví (Data concerning the representative of a legal person): Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 3 April 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Nejvyšší správní soud – Czech Republic) – L.H. v Ministerstvo zdravotnictví (Reference for a preliminary ruling – Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Article 4 – Definitions – Article 6 – Lawfulness of processing – Article 86 – Public access to official documents – Data concerning the representative of a legal person – Case-law of a national court imposing an obligation to inform and consult the data subject prior to disclosure of official documents containing such data)
Date: 2025-04-03
Institutions: Court of Justice
Subjects: data protection, data-processing law, disclosure of information, managing director, personal data, protection of privacy








C_202503020EN.000101.fmx.xml












Official Journal of the European Union


EN
C series













C/2025/3020


10.6.2025






Judgment of the Court (First Chamber) of 3 April 2025 (request for a preliminary ruling from the Nejvyšší správní soud – Czech Republic) – L.H. v Ministerstvo zdravotnictví


(Case C-710/23,
                (1)
Ministerstvo zdravotnictví (Data concerning the representative of a legal person))

(Reference for a preliminary ruling - Protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data - Regulation (EU) 2016/679 - Article 4 - Definitions - Article 6 - Lawfulness of processing - Article 86 - Public access to official documents - Data concerning the representative of a legal person - Case-law of a national court imposing an obligation to inform and consult the data subject prior to disclosure of official documents containing such data)
(C/2025/3020)
Language of the case: Czech

Referring court

Nejvyšší správní soud

Parties to the main proceedings


Applicant: L.H.

Defendant: Ministerstvo zdravotnictví

Operative part of the judgment







1.


Points 1 and 2 of Article 4 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 disclosure of the first name, surname, signature and contact details of a natural person representing a legal person constitutes processing of personal data. The fact that that disclosure is made for the sole purpose of enabling the identification of the natural person authorised to act on behalf of that legal person is irrelevant in that regard.










2.


Article 6(1)(c) and (e) of Regulation 2016/679, read in conjunction with Article 86 of that regulation,
must be interpreted as not precluding national case-law which requires a controller, being a public authority responsible for reconciling public access to official documents with the right to the protection of personal data, to inform and consult the natural person concerned prior to the disclosure of official documents containing such data, provided that such an obligation is not impossible to implement and that it does not require disproportionate effort and, therefore, it does not result in a disproportionate restriction on public access to those documents.






(1)  OJ C C/2024/1520.


ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/C/2025/3020/oj
ISSN 1977-091X (electronic edition)