Personal data

Personal data – Commission's own initiative

While it is often the case that in the process of identifying confidential information with the addressees, their confidentiality claims also cover the personal data of their former and current employees, it is necessary that the case team, on its own initiative, identifies and removes any personal data from documents prior to their publication (in particular from the decision).

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For more information and guidance on the substantive identification of personal data see section 6.2.

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The case team should identify and remove any personal data on of its own initiative although it may be time efficient to do so after the parties' confidentiality claims have been accepted since they generally cover significant amount of personal data, i.e. with respect to the employees of the relevant addressees.

Resources

See Also

References

• Information about Personal data in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Further Reading

• Information about Personal data in EU Competition Procedure, 3rd. Edition, Edited by Luis Ortiz Blanco (Oxford University Press)

Non-Confidential version of the Decision Contents: Personal data

The Commission must consider the requirements of Regulation EC No 45/2001. 1 Personal data must, in principle, be removed from documents before their publication.

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In Regulation EC No 45/2001, personal data is defined as: “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person”. Data relating to individuals have to be treated with particular care in any administrative procedure, including any cartel investigation. This duty of care is of particular concern when a decision that includes such data is made available to the public. As a general rule, such information should therefore not be included in a non-confidential version of a decision. Information that could identify a person may therefore be replaced by a more general description (e.g. “Ms. Y” or “X's marketing director between 1998-2000” could be replaced by “one of X's representatives”). Particular reasons may, however, be present that would make the inclusion of such data in a non-confidential version proportional. This may be the case if the indication of a person's function is necessary for the understanding of the decision 2 or if the undertaking to which a decision is addressed is an individual.

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The individuals concerned have certain access rights regarding their personal data. DG Competition's data protection co-ordinator would be involved in such issues.

Resources

See Also

References

• Information about Personal data in the Antitrust Manual of Procedures for the application of Articles 101 and 102 TFEU (Internal DG Competition)

Notes

[Note 1] Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data, OJ L 8, 12.1.2001, p. 1-22.
[Note 2] See Case T-474/04 Pergan, paragraph 72.

Further Reading

• Information about Personal data in “An Introduction to EU Competition Law”, Moritz Lorenz (Cambridge University Press)