In her Opinion—delivered to the Court of Justice of the EU on Thursday, 14 September—in Case C-115/22, Advocate General Tamara Ćapeta took the view that a national anti-doping authority publishing a doped professional athlete’s personal data on the Internet does not breach the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In her view, the resulting interference with the right to data protection may be justified by the preventive aim of such publication.
An Austrian middle-distance runner—found guilty of acting in breach of Austrian anti-doping rules—has seen her name, the anti-doping rule violations she committed, and the period of suspension published in a table of suspended athletes on the national anti-doping authority’s publicly accessible website. She brought a request for review of that decision before the Austrian Independent Arbitration Committee (USK). This body is notably wondering whether publishing a doped professional athlete’s personal data on the Internet is compatible with the GDPR.
As regards the admissibility of this reference for a preliminary ruling, the advocate general considers that the USK constitutes a ‘court or tribunal’ within the meaning of Article 267 TFEU.
On the question of substance, she first finds that the GDPR does not apply to the factual circumstances of the case, which fall outside the scope of EU law.
In the alternative, the advocate general considers that the GDPR does allow personal data to be processed in a predetermined context without the need for an individualised proportionality assessment.
In her view, the interference with the rights of professional athletes that results from public disclosure can be justified by the preventive aim of deterring young athletes from committing doping offences and of informing relevant stakeholders.
Ms Ćapeta is of the opinion that, in modern societies, the only way to satisfy a generalised disclosure obligation such as that imposed by the Austrian legislature in the present case is by publishing the information on the Internet, since mere print publication is no longer an adequate means of making information available to the general public. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)