Overview
- Germany’s top civil court overturned an OLG Cologne ruling and sent the case back, requiring a case-by-case interests balancing that can justify earlier deletion in special circumstances.
- The judges treated the sector’s Code of Conduct, approved by the Hessian data protection authority, as the guiding framework with a default three‑year retention and 18 months in certain cases.
- The ruling distinguishes privately reported payment data from public registers, setting it apart from a 2023 EU Court of Justice decision on insolvency records.
- Schufa estimates about 564,000 people would have benefited from immediate deletion under the lower court’s approach, and both sides urged legislative clarification after the judgment.
- The decision preserves use of past payment problems in credit scoring that influences housing, loans and contracts, while the OLG Cologne must reassess the plaintiff’s storage period and potential damages.