On December 11, 2024, the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Belgian DPA) announced via a LinkedIn post that, on the same date, the Markets Court requested a preliminary ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) concerning a case decided by the Belgian DPA in December 2023.

Background to the request

An individual, who wished to withdraw from the Catholic Church, lodged a complaint with the Belgian DPA after their request to be deleted from all Catholic Church files, including the baptismal register, was denied by the Diocese of Ghent. The Belgian DPA decided that the Diocese of Ghent should comply with the complainant's right to erasure under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In light of this, the Diocese of Ghent appealed to the Markets Court.

Questions submitted to the CJEU

The Markets Court submitted the following considerations to the CJEU for ruling:

• whether Article 17 of the GDPR applies to members of the Catholic Church who want to distance themselves from the Church;
• whether Article 17(1)(c) of the GDPR has an effect on the data subject's freedom of religion;
• whether the GDPR applies to baptismal records which are not digitized;
• whether the historical value of the baptismal records means the application of exception under Article 17(3)(d) of the GDPR; and
• whether the right to erasure can be satisfied by annotating in the baptismal records that the individual has left the Church.

Outcome

In light of the above, the Markets Court suspended the proceedings for all remaining questions.

You can read the LinkedIn post in French here and in Dutch here, and the Markets Court decision, only available in Dutch, here.