In a recent decision, the Federal Administrative Court (BVerwG) dealt with the disclosure of names and official contact details of employees of public authorities and political groups (case reference: 10 C 5.21 of 1 September 2022). According to this ruling, authorities must first determine whether the interests of the third parties concerned could be significantly impaired when disclosing personal data in accordance with the German Environmental Information Act (UIG). In the case at hand, a company in the glass industry had requested information about the development of a specific regulation. Personal data had been blacked out in the documents issued. However, the company wanted the names and official contact details of public authority employees below head of division level and employees of associations and parliamentary groups to be disclosed and took legal action - initially unsuccessfully in both instances. According to the Administrative Court of Berlin and the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg, the European legal values of the Environmental Information Directive mean that a balance must be struck in each individual case between the confidentiality interests of the public authority and parliamentary group employees and the disclosure interests of the applicant. Since the personal data could be disseminated via the Internet and the public interest in disclosure was rather low, it was justified to refuse to disclose the data, both courts ruled.

On appeal, the Federal Administrative Court has now contradicted the interpretation of the lower courts. According to Section 9 (1) sentence 1 no. 1 UIG, the disclosure of personal data must result in a significant impairment of interests. This must be determined in the abstract before a balance is struck between the interests of confidentiality and disclosure. The general risk that the personal data could be disseminated on the internet is not sufficient for this. In the case of function-related data such as a work email address or telephone number, the BVerwG argues that there is usually no significant impairment of interests, citing the Freedom of Information Act (IFG), and referred the case back to the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court. The court must now decide whether the employees of the authorities and parliamentary groups can be expected to disclose their names and contact details.