IP - 07121-1/2021/662

IP - 07121-1/2021/662
Authority:	IP (Slovenia)
Jurisdiction:	Slovenia
Relevant Law:	Article 4(1) GDPR
Type:	Advisory Opinion
Outcome:	n/a
Started:
Decided:	06.04.2021
Published:	06.04.2021
Fine:	None
Parties:	n/a
National Case Number/Name:	07121-1/2021/662
European Case Law Identifier:	n/a
Appeal:	n/a
Original Language(s):	Slovenian
Original Source:	IP (in SL)
Initial Contributor:	GDPR+

The Slovenian DPA held that self-employed individuals do not enjoy protection of their personal data when operating as business entities.

English Summary

Facts

The DPA received a question whether self-employed individuals enjoy the protection of personal data if the public disclosure concerns their activity as business entities.

Holding

The IP explained that data on self-employed individuals in connection with the performance of their registered activity do not enjoy the protection of personal data. In accordance with the constitutional case law (Decision no. U-I-84/03 and no. U-I-298/04), personal data protection cannot be applied to the personal data of an individual when he/she appears on the market as a business entity (the Constitutional Court ruled on personal data of sole proprietors). Other entities that perform a registered activity in the Republic of Slovenia, including cultural activity, can also be considered business entities in a broader sense.

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English Machine Translation of the Decision

The decision below is a machine translation of the Slovenian original. Please refer to the Slovenian original for more details.

                    
                    Publicly published online data on the self-employed in culture
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                        Date: 06.04.2021
                        Number: 07121-1 / 2021/662
                        Categories: EMŠO and tax, Legal bases, World Wide Web, Personal data collections
                        The Information Commissioner (hereinafter IP) received an e-mail from you explaining that information about you and your cultural activity is available on a specific website, which erroneously gives the impression that you are cooperating with them. Wondering what can be done to remove your data from your database.

On the basis of the information you have provided to us, hereinafter referred to as Article 58 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data Directive 95/46 / EC (hereinafter: the General Regulation on Data Protection), point 7 of the first paragraph of Article 49 of the Personal Data Protection Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 94/07, officially consolidated text, hereinafter ZVOP-1 ) and Article 2 of the Information Commissioner Act (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 113/05, hereinafter ZInfP), we provide our non-binding opinion regarding your question. IP clarifies at the outset that it cannot make a concrete assessment of the lawfulness of data processing in the opinion, but can only do so in the inspection process.

As can be seen from the web link you provided, this is, in this case, the information of a self-employed person in culture. IP explains that data on self-employed persons in culture in connection with the performance of their registered activity do not enjoy the protection of personal data. In accordance with the constitutional case law (Decision No. UI-84/03 and No. UI-298/04), the data of the protected personal data do not have those data which are related to the performance of the activities of a business entity (the Constitutional Court ruled in these cases to the personal data of sole proprietors). Other entities that perform a registered activity in the Republic of Slovenia, including cultural activity, can also be considered business entities in a broader sense, as will be explained below.

The legal basis for the public publication of data of a self-employed person in culture is the Act on the Realization of the Public Interest in Culture (Official Gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, No. 77/07, as amended; hereinafter: ZUJIK) and the Business Register of Slovenia Act. RS, No. 49/06, hereinafter ZPRS-1). In accordance with the provisions of Article 82 of the ZUJIK, independent professional performance of cultural activities is registered in accordance with general regulations. If an individual meets the special conditions referred to in this Article, instead of following the general regulations, he may register with the Ministry of Culture by entering himself in the register of self-employed persons in culture. Furthermore, Article 91 of the ZUJIK stipulates that the register of the self-employed in culture is a public book, which means that anyone can access the data.

In view of the above, an individual who independently performs cultural activities is registered either in accordance with general regulations or by entering in the register of self-employed persons in culture. In both cases, according to the provisions of the fifth and sixth indents of Article 2 of ZPRS-1, an individual is entered in the Business Register of Slovenia (hereinafter: business register) as a natural person performing a registered activity and represents a business entity under ZPRS-1. On the basis of the above provisions, the self-employed in culture therefore form business units, which are entered in the business register. In cases where individuals are entered in the register of self-employed in culture, their data according to the provisions of Article 11 of ZPRS-1 to the Agency of the Republic of Slovenia for Public Legal Records and Related Services (hereinafter: AJPES) is forwarded by the Ministry of Culture. register do it yourself.

At the same time, ZPRS-1 in the second paragraph of Article 3 stipulates that AJPES, which maintains and manages the register, provides public data from the business register and publishes them on its web portal. According to the twelfth indent of Article 2 of ZPRS-1, public data of the business register are all data on units of the business register, except for data that are determined as personal data by a special law. The tax number and address of residence of a natural person, which are at the same time the tax number and the registered office of a business entity, become public data upon the entry of this business entity in the business register.

Hoping you have received an answer to your question, we warmly welcome you.


Mojca Prelesnik, B.Sc.
Information Commissioner

Prepared by:
Neja Domnik, M.Sc. right,
assistant consultant at IP