Schufa creates a score for virtually every consumer, which is used to assess their creditworthiness. According to an assessment by the Advocate General at the ECJ, however, there is a contradiction with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). daily News. This is because this prohibits decisions that have a legal consequence for a consumer from being made solely through automated data processing.
According to the Advocate General, that is exactly the case here. Because even if the calculation of the scoring value of the Schufa is a trade secret and nobody really knows how it comes about, it is clear that no people are viewing the data and making an assessment. It doesn’t change anything that a bank employee might end up processing the process – because if the Schufa score doesn’t match, the loan doesn’t exist.
Bankruptcy information also affected
A second upcoming decision by the ECJ on the Schufa concerns entries on private bankruptcies, with which a consumer can escape from a mountain of debt that is too high. After the conclusion of such a procedure, the information about it will be made public by the competent insolvency court. However, this deletes the entry after six months – the Schufa, on the other hand, keeps the entry in its database for up to three years, which, according to the report, should also be illegal.
The ECJ deals with these questions because corresponding cases are pending in German courts. The proceedings were passed on to the ECJ for decision-making, because ultimately European law is at stake. The report that has now been submitted does not constitute a judgement, but as a rule the judges rarely arrive at a different assessment than the Advocate General.
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Schufa
