Article 12 Transparent information, communication and modalities for the exercise of the rights of the data subject
4 preliminary rulingsJudgment of 19 Mar 2026, C-526/24 (Brillen Rottler) 
Article 12(5) 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 a first request for access to personal data made by the data subject to the controller pursuant to Article 15 of that regulation may be regarded as ‘excessive’, within the meaning of that Article 12(5), where that controller demonstrates, in the light of all the relevant circumstances of the case, that, despite formal observance of the conditions laid down by those provisions, that request was made by the data subject not for the purpose of being aware of the processing of those data and verifying the lawfulness of that processing, in order to be able, subsequently, to obtain protection of his or her rights under that regulation, but with an abusive intention, such as that of artificially creating the conditions laid down for obtaining an advantage from that regulation. The fact that, according to publicly available information, the data subject has made a large number of requests for access to his or her personal data, followed by claims for compensation, to various controllers, may be taken into consideration for the purpose of establishing the existence of such an abusive intention.
Judgment of 26 Oct 2023, C-307/22 (FT)
Article 12(5) and Article 15(1) and (3) 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 controller is under an obligation to provide the data subject, free of charge, with a first copy of his or her personal data undergoing processing, even where the reason for that request is not related to those referred to in the first sentence of recital 63 of that regulation.
Judgment of 12 Jan 2023, C-154/21 (Österreichische Post )
Article 15(1)(c) 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 data subject’s right of access to the personal data concerning him or her, provided for by that provision, entails, where those data have been or will be disclosed to recipients, an obligation on the part of the controller to provide the data subject with the actual identity of those recipients, unless it is impossible to identify those recipients or the controller demonstrates that the data subject’s requests for access are manifestly unfounded or excessive within the meaning of Article 12(5) of Regulation 2016/679, in which cases the controller may indicate to the data subject only the categories of recipient in question.
Judgment of 7 May 2009, C-553/07 (Rijkeboer)
Article 12(a) 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 requires Member States to ensure a right of access to information on the recipients or categories of recipient of personal data and on the content of the data disclosed not only in respect of the present but also in respect of the past. It is for Member States to fix a time-limit for storage of that information and to provide for access to that information which constitutes a fair balance between, on the one hand, the interest of the data subject in protecting his privacy, in particular by way of his rights to object and to bring legal proceedings and, on the other, the burden which the obligation to store that information represents for the controller. Rules limiting the storage of information on the recipients or categories of recipient of personal data and on the content of the data disclosed to a period of one year and correspondingly limiting access to that information, while basic data is stored for a much longer period, do not constitute a fair balance of the interest and obligation at issue, unless it can be shown that longer storage of that information would constitute an excessive burden on the controller. It is, however, for national courts to make the determinations necessary.
