Ruling
Gelderland District Court: bankruptcy trustee is controller, DPA fine for unsecured hard drive cut to 58,125 euros
- Date
- Status
- status not established
- Body
- Rechtbank Gelderland
- Reference
- ECLI:NL:RBGEL:2025:6547 (zaaknummer ARN 22/4633)
- Amount
- €58,125
What it is about
At the auction of a bankrupt healthcare foundation's estate, the trustee sold a server whose hard drive held large amounts of (special category) personal data on clients and staff, including citizen service numbers, salary and medical data. On 9 December 2021 the DPA fined the trustee 310,000 euros for breaching Article 5(1)(f) with Article 32(1) and (2) GDPR, and on objection reduced the fine to 148,750 euros on 25 August 2022. The court held that the trustee in that capacity is the controller because he could reasonably access the data, and that the fine was justified. It reduced the fine to 58,125 euros for reduced culpability and excessive length of proceedings.
What this means in practice
Whoever gains actual control over data carriers, such as a bankruptcy trustee, becomes the controller and must arrange security, including when selling hardware. Inventory all data carriers and wipe or destroy them verifiably before equipment leaves. Instructing an auction house to remove drives is not enough without checking. Fines for security failures are reduced for lower culpability, not removed.
The GDPR articles concerned
Source: Rechtspraak.nlchecked on 15 September 2026
Summary and practical reading by Praxikon. Not legal advice; the source prevails.
Connections
What connects to this development
Themes where this returns
The counterpart in the other law
- Article 3 AI Act: Definitions
- Article 5 AI Act: Prohibited AI practices
- Article 6 AI Act: Classification rules for high-risk AI systems
- Article 10 AI Act: Data and data governance
- Article 11 AI Act: Technical documentation
via Keeping records: record of processing, technical documentation and logs
- Article 12 AI Act: Record-keeping
via Keeping records: record of processing, technical documentation and logs
- Article 15 AI Act: Accuracy, robustness and cybersecurity
- Article 16 AI Act: Obligations of providers of high-risk AI systems
- Article 18 AI Act: Documentation keeping
via Keeping records: record of processing, technical documentation and logs
- Article 19 AI Act: Automatically generated logs
via Keeping records: record of processing, technical documentation and logs
- Article 25 AI Act: Responsibilities along the AI value chain
- Article 26 AI Act: Obligations of deployers of high-risk AI systems
- Article 50 AI Act: Transparency obligations for providers and deployers of certain AI systems
Case law8 of 14
- Council of State: 600,000 euro fine for wifi tracking in Enschede stays annulled
2026-07-29 · final, Raad van State, Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak
- Overijssel District Court revokes DPA fine for wifi tracking in Enschede
2024-02-02 · final, Rechtbank Overijssel
- SyRI: legislation for a government risk model without insight into indicators and model offers insufficient safeguards
2020-02-05 · final, Rechtbank Den Haag, NJCM c.s. en FNV tegen de Staat der Nederlanden
- Noord-Nederland District Court upholds DPA fine for village livestream, reduces it to 375 euros
2025-01-09 · status not established, Rechtbank Noord-Nederland
- Schrems v Meta: no unlimited retention and aggregation of data for targeted advertising
2024-10-04 · final, Hof van Justitie van de EU (Vierde kamer), Maximilian Schrems tegen Meta Platforms Ireland Limited
- IAB Europe: the TC String is personal data and the industry body is a joint controller
2024-03-07 · final, Hof van Justitie van de EU (Vierde kamer), IAB Europe tegen Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit (België)
- EDPS v SRB: pseudonymised data are not always personal data for everyone, but the information duty applies from collection
2025-09-04 · final, Hof van Justitie van de EU (Eerste kamer), Europese Toezichthouder voor gegevensbescherming (EDPS) tegen Gemeenschappelijke Afwikkelingsraad (SRB)
- Mousse: asking for Mr or Ms when selling a train ticket is not necessary
2025-01-09 · final, Hof van Justitie van de EU (Eerste kamer), Mousse tegen Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL) en SNCF Connect
Guidelines8 of 14
- Guidelines 02/2026 on Anonymisation
2026-07-07 · under consultation, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Opinion 28/2024 on certain data protection aspects related to the processing of personal data in the context of AI models
2024-12-17 · final, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Guidelines 4/2019 on Article 25 Data Protection by Design and by Default
2020-10-20 · final, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Guidelines 01/2025 on Pseudonymisation
2025-01-16 · under consultation, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Guidelines 01/2021 on Examples regarding Personal Data Breach Notification
2021-12-14 · final, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Guidelines 07/2020 on the concepts of controller and processor in the GDPR
2021-07-07 · final, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Guidelines 03/2026 on web scraping in the context of generative AI
2026-07-07 · under consultation, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
- Guidelines 1/2024 on processing of personal data based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest)
2024-10-08 · under consultation, European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
Enforcement and fines8 of 12
- Coolblue fined 40,000 euros on objection for cookies without consent
2024-12-23 · status not established, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- Dutch Tax Administration fined 3.7 million euros for the FSV fraud blacklist
2022-04-07 · status not established, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- HAN University of Applied Sciences fined 175,000 euros for inadequate security
2025-12-15 · final, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- Dutch DPA and tennis federation KNLTB end litigation: fine cut from 525,000 to at most 250,000 euros
2025-10-18 · status not established, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- 600,000 euro fine for AS Watson (Kruidvat) over tracking cookies without consent
2024-05-02 · annulled, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- 500 euro fine and penalty order for Stichting Oud Lemmer over webcam livestream
2021-07-09 · status not established, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- 100 million euro fine for MLU B.V. (Yango) for transfers to Russia
2026-04-01 · status not established, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
- DPA cuts Kruidvat fine to 50,000 euros on objection
2025-05-27 · status not established, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
Legislation in motion6 of 8
- Proposal: definition of scientific research, purpose limitation and information duty for research (Article 4(38), 5(1)(b) and 13(5) GDPR)
2025-11-19 · under negotiation, Europese Commissie
- Proposal: relative definition of personal data (Article 4(1) GDPR)
2025-11-19 · proposal, Europese Commissie
- European Parliament: joint ITRE-LIBE draft report, amendments tabled, no committee vote yet
2026-06-22 · under negotiation, Europees Parlement, commissies ITRE en LIBE (gezamenlijke commissie)
- Proposal: implementing acts on when pseudonymised data ceases to be personal data (new Article 41a GDPR)
2025-11-19 · proposal, Europese Commissie
- Council: Irish Presidency continues with a revised compromise, Antici Group 11 September 2026
2026-09-11 · under negotiation, Raad van de Europese Unie, Iers voorzitterschap
- Proposal: cookie rules move from ePrivacy to the GDPR, with new exceptions and a six-month rule (new Article 88a GDPR and Article 5(3) ePrivacy)
2025-11-19 · under negotiation, Europese Commissie