The Constitutional Court of Latvia rules that the Latvian legislation in respect to processing of driver’s data, in particular – penalty points, does not comply with the right to respect for private life

Under the aforementioned law, the Road Safety Directorate of Latvia entered penalty points in the national register of vehicles and their drivers in respect to specific individuals. Those point were imposed as a part of an administrative sanction, on account of one or multiple road traffic offences. The information relating to penalty points imposed on drivers was accessible to the public and disclosed by the Road Safety Directorate to any person who requested it, without the person having to establish a specific interest in obtaining that information, including to private operators, e.g. data bases, for re-use. The Constitutional Court held that, in its assessment of this law, it must take into account GDPR and therefore asked the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)  to clarify the scope of several provisions of GDPR. 

On June 22, 2021, the CJEU adopted a judgment in case No.C‑439/19. The CJEU  held that the provisions of GDPR must be interpreted as precluding national legislation which obliges the public body to make data on penalty points accessible to the public, without the person requesting access having to establish a specific interest in obtaining the data. It has not been established that disclosure of personal data relating to penalty points imposed for road traffic offences is necessary, particularly, in respect to the purpose of improving road safety invoked by the Latvian Government. Furthermore, according to the CJEU, neither the right of public access to official documents, nor the right to freedom of information justify such legislation which obliges disclosure of information on data subject's public offences. 

In the light of the aforementioned judgment of the CJEU, the Constitutional Court ruled that the right to respect for private life enshrined in Article 96 of the Latvian Constitution shall be consistent with the principle of data protection as provided by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In this regard the data processing principles enshrined in GDPR shall be respected. The contested legal provision, that makes the information on penalty points accessible to everyone, is a clear violation of the right to respect for a person's private life. While this provision has a legitimate purpose – to improve road traffic safety and protect health and safety of other persons involved in the road traffic, it is clearly not proportionate, since there are other means of achieving this purpose.