X, 12.12.2013 (“X”)

Access: Directive 95/46 does not require Member States to levy fees when the right of access to personal data is exercised, nor does it prohibit the levying of such fees as long as they are not excessive. (¶¶ 22, 25, 28–30)

It is therefore clear from the wording of Article 12(a) of Directive 95/46 that that provision does not require the Member States to levy fees when the right to access personal data is exercised; nor, however, does it prohibit the levying of such fees, so long as they are not excessive.

Under that provision, the Member States are to confer upon any person a right of access to personal data relating to him and to information on the recipients or categories of recipients of such data and the logic involved in any automatic processing of such data. In view of the considerations made above in the analysis of Question 2, Article 12(a) of Directive 95/46 must be interpreted as requiring Member States to ensure that the exercise of that right of access takes place without constraint, without excessive delay, and without excessive expense.

Thus, it is for any Member State which requires payment of a fee from individuals exercising the right to access the data referred to in Article 12(a) of Directive 95/46 to fix that fee at a level which constitutes a fair balance between, on the one hand, the interest of the data subject in protecting his privacy, in particular through his right to have the data communicated to him in an intelligible form, so that he is able, if necessary, to exercise his rights to rectification, erasure and blocking of the data (in the event that the processing of the data does not comply with the directive) and his rights to object and to bring legal proceedings and, on the other, the burden which the obligation to communicate such data represents for the controller (see, by analogy, Rijkeboer, paragraph 64).

In view of the importance – highlighted in recitals 2 and 10 in the preamble to Directive 95/46 – of protecting privacy, emphasised in the case-law of the Court (see Rijkeboer, paragraph 47 and the case-law cited) and enshrined in Article 8 of the Charter, the fees which may be levied under Article 12(a) of the directive may not be fixed at a level likely to constitute an obstacle to the exercise of the right of access guaranteed by that provision.

It should be held that, for the purposes of applying Article 12(a) of Directive 95/46, where a national public authority levies a fee on an individual exercising the right to access personal data relating to him, the level of that fee should not exceed the cost of communicating such data. That upper limit does not prevent the Member States from fixing such fees at a lower level in order to ensure that all individuals retain an effective right to access such data.