New access to the online commercial register means that entrepreneurs’ sensitive data can be viewed freely. The Federal Minister of Justice now wants to intervene.
(Photo: Reuters)
Berlin The Federal Ministry of Justice wants to clearly regulate that the data that can be viewed in the online commercial register will in future be limited to what is absolutely necessary. This was announced by the department of Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP) at the request of the Handelsblatt. This should be “legally clarified again,” it said. This includes, for example, that in future no documents containing private addresses, signatures or copies of ID cards should be submitted for publication in the commercial register.
The data sets that are already online are also to be cleaned up. The ministry said: “A particular challenge are the documents that are already available in the commercial register, but should not be there.” The federal states are responsible for the specific content of the commercial register. Procedures would have to be used here to “track down the relevant documents in the register and arrange for a cleanup”. The weekly newspaper “Die Zeit” first reported on it.
The ministry asserted: “Our house takes the concerns of citizens and associations of possible misuse of personal data contained in the digital commercial register very seriously.”
In the past few weeks, there have been massive protests from business about the new access to the online commercial register. Since August 1, it has been possible to view and download excerpts from the register of trade, cooperatives, partnerships and associations as well as notarial entries via the joint register portal of the federal states without user registration and retrieval fees. The EU digitization directive was thus implemented.
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Since then, sensitive data of company directors and employees such as private addresses, dates of birth, bank details or scanned signatures have been accessible without restrictions. The entrepreneurs fear the misuse of the data, economic damage and dangers for themselves and their families.
According to the Federal Ministry of Justice, legal clarifications require cooperation with the state justice administrations and the Federal Chamber of Notaries. Not only do the regulations in the Commercial Register Ordinance have to be adjusted, but also the service regulations for notaries, which are the responsibility of the federal states.
Registration courts responsible for changes
The Federal Ministry of Justice is working “at full speed to find a satisfactory solution here”, the Federal Ministry of Justice further announced and promised: “We will protect personal data in the best possible way without endangering the functionality of the commercial register.”
However, the ministry also explained: In order to protect and ensure transparency in legal transactions through the publicity of the commercial register, it is important that certain personal data is entered in the commercial register and can therefore be viewed online by everyone. For example, the surnames, first names, dates of birth and places of residence of natural persons who are registered as authorized representatives for a company and must therefore be identifiable in legal and commercial transactions must be legally certain.
“Die Zeit” also reported that the ministry had made it clear who those affected can contact if they discover personal data in the commercial register that does not belong there: directly to the register courts where the documents are stored. “Citizens can assert a possible right to the deletion of such data under Article 17 of the General Data Protection Regulation or their right to object under Article 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation,” the report said.
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