EU court weighs GDPR and digital evidence in employment dispute

The Court of Justice of the European Union has clarified that the GDPR does not require national courts to automatically exclude evidence containing personal data solely because it was previously obtained unlawfully by one of the parties.

The case, C-484/24 NTH Haustechnik v EM, concerns a dispute between a German employer and a former employee. The employer sought damages over the alleged unauthorised sale of company property and relied on information obtained through access to the former employee’s private eBay account.

The referring German court asked whether judicial use of such evidence would itself amount to personal data processing under the GDPR and whether the EU data protection law required the evidence to be excluded.

The CJEU found that a court’s handling of evidence containing personal data can constitute data processing. However, such processing may be lawful where the court must perform its judicial duties and decide the dispute before it.

The Court also clarified that the GDPR does not create an automatic exclusionary rule for evidence obtained in breach of privacy or data protection rules. National courts must instead assess whether the processing is necessary and proportionate, while respecting GDPR principles and the rights protected by the EU Charter.

The ruling is relevant to civil and employment proceedings because it clarifies the relationship among data protection law, the right to evidence, and the right to effective judicial protection.

Why does it matter?

The case clarifies an important boundary in GDPR litigation: unlawful collection of personal data does not automatically make evidence unusable in court, but it also does not give parties a free pass to gather evidence unlawfully. Courts must balance privacy and data protection rights with the right to effective judicial protection. The ruling could affect employment disputes, civil claims and digital evidence cases where emails, platform accounts, logs or other personal data are submitted as proof.

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