c) compliance with a legal obligation
8 preliminary rulingsJudgment of 3 Apr 2025, C-710/23 (Ministerstvo zdravotnictví) 
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.
Judgment of 12 Sep 2024, C-17/22 (HTB Neunte Immobilien Portfolio )
Point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) of Regulation 2016/679 must be interpreted as meaning that that processing of personal data is justified, under that provision, where it is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, under the law of the Member State concerned, as stated by the case-law of that Member State, on condition that that case-law is clear and precise, that its application is foreseeable for those persons subject to it and that it meets an objective of public interest and is proportionate to it.
Judgment of 9 Nov 2023, C-319/22 (Gesamtverband Autoteile-Handel)
Article 61(1) of Regulation 2018/858, read in conjunction with Article 61(4) and point 6.1 of Annex X to that regulation, must be interpreted as meaning that it establishes a ‘legal obligation’, within the meaning of Article 6(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), on car manufacturers, to make the VINs of the vehicles which they manufacture available to independent operators, as ‘controllers’, within the meaning of Article 4(7) of that regulation.
Judgment of 4 Jul 2023, C-252/21 (Meta Platforms and Others)
Point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) of Regulation 2016/679 must be interpreted as meaning that the processing of personal data by the operator of an online social network, which entails the collection of data of the users of such a network from other services of the group to which that operator belongs or from visits by those users to third-party websites or apps, the linking of those data with the social network account of those users and the use of those data, is justified, under that provision, where it is actually necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, pursuant to a provision of EU law or the law of the Member State concerned, where that legal basis meets an objective of public interest and is proportionate to the legitimate aim pursued and where that processing is carried out only in so far as is strictly necessary;
Judgment of 2 Mar 2023, C-268/21 (Norra Stockholm Bygg)
Article 6(3) and (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 that provision applies, in the context of civil court proceedings, to the production as evidence of a staff register containing personal data of third parties collected principally for the purposes of tax inspection.
Judgment of 1 Aug 2022, C-184/20 (Vyriausioji tarnybinės etikos komisija)
Article 7(c) 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 and point (c) of the first subparagraph of Article 6(1) and Article 6(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), read in the light of Articles 7, 8 and 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, must be interpreted as precluding national legislation that provides for the publication online of the declaration of private interests that any head of an establishment receiving public funds is required to lodge, in so far as, in particular, that publication concerns name-specific data relating to his or her spouse, cohabitee or partner, or to persons who are close relatives of the declarant, or are known by him or her, liable to give rise to a conflict of interests, or concerns any transaction concluded during the last 12 calendar months the value of which exceeds EUR 3000.
Judgment of 30 May 2013, C-342/12 (Worten)
Article 6(1)(b) and (c) and Article 7(c) and (e) of Directive 95/46 do not preclude national legislation, such as that at issue in the main proceedings, which requires an employer to make the record of working time available to the national authority responsible for monitoring working conditions so as to allow its immediate consultation, provided that this obligation is necessary for the purposes of the performance by that authority of its task of monitoring the application of the legislation relating to working conditions, in particular as regards working time.
Judgment of 20 May 2003, C-465/00 (Rechnungshof)
Articles 6(1)(c) and 7(c) and (e) 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 do not preclude national legislation such as that at issue in the main proceedings, provided that it is shown that the wide disclosure not merely of the amounts of the annual income above a certain threshold of persons employed by the bodies subject to control by the Rechnungshof but also of the names of the recipients of that income is necessary for and appropriate to the objective of proper management of public funds pursued by the legislature, that being for the national courts to ascertain.
Articles 6(1)(c) and 7(c) and (e) of Directive 95/46 are directly applicable, in that they may be relied on by an individual before the national courts to oust the application of rules of national law which are contrary to those provisions.
