VoetbalTV/AP: final score 2-0

This morning, the highest general administrative court, the Council of State, ruled against the Dutch Data Protection Authority in its appeal against the earlier annulment of the fine it had imposed on VoetbalTV. This fine was based on the Dutch DPA’s narrow and controversial interpretation of the legitimate interest-test under the GDPR. While the Council of State did not address the DPA’s view that a purely commercial interest can never constitute a commercial interest, it did criticize its approach in which it had ignored the interests put forward by the controller, and replaced these with its own assessment of the interests pursued by the controller. The ruling is not subject to further appeal. A machine translation can be downloaded here.