Court of Appeal finds DPA exemption is unlawful under GDPR

The Court of Appeal’s judgment in R (Open Rights Group and the3million) v Secretary of State for the Home Department and Others [2021] EWCA Civ 800, handed down this morning, concludes that the ‘immigration exemption’ in Schedule 2 to the DPA 2018 is not compliant with the GDPR. That is a very significant conclusion in its own right, from the perspectives of both immigration and data protection law. But the Court’s analysis also applies to a more general question: what does a valid (i.e. GDPR-compliant) exemption from data protection rights and duties look like? Continue reading

Upper Tribunal Consultation Alert

The Upper Tribunal (Administrative Appeals Chamber) hears a lot of information rights appeals. What not all users of the UT, or readers of this blog, may have realised is that not all of its decisions – despite it being an appellate jurisdiction – are published online rendering them accessible to those interested in the area. Still fewer are then selected for reporting in the Administrative Appeals Case Reports, although we have our doubts whether anyone really uses the AACR. Is it time for a change of approach? Continue reading

‘Stayin’ Appeals’ by the FTTGees – The Hottest Ticket(Master) in Town

The first major GDPR penalty notice appeal – Ticketmaster UK Ltd v Information Commissioner (EA/2020/0359/FP) – has been stayed by order of the First-tier Tribunal until 28 days after the handing down of judgment in civil litigation brought against Ticketmaster by some 795 Ticketmaster customers: Collins & Others v Ticketmaster UK Ltd (BL-2019-LIV-000007). Continue reading

EIR: Court of Justice gives guidance on the internal communications exception in Land Baden-Württemberg v DR

The Court of Justice recently gave guidance on the “internal communications” exception in the Environmental Information Directive 2003/4/EC. It gave its views on the principle that exceptions should be interpreted restrictively and the relevance of the Aarhus Convention Implementation Guide (tl;dr – internal is the opposite of external, to be a communication information has to be shared, there is no time limit on the exception, and neither the principle nor the Guide makes any difference to the outcome in the end).

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