Overview
- The Bundesgerichtshof heard arguments on Thursday over five 2023 complaints that Schufa’s data copy for the older Basisscore was too vague, and the court has not yet announced a date for its judgment.
- An earlier Oberlandesgericht Dresden decision ordered Schufa to give laity-understandable information on which criteria most influenced plaintiffs’ scores without requiring full mathematical formulas.
- Schufa says its current data-copy practice meets legal requirements and points to support from several appellate courts, but it introduced a new, more transparent 12-criteria score on March 17, 2026 that it plans to phase in through the end of 2028.
- A change to the Federal Data Protection Act taking effect on November 20, 2026 will require credit agencies on request to disclose all scores from the past 12 months, the data used and the criteria that most influenced each score.
- Many consumers do not check their Schufa values but expanded disclosure would let people find and correct errors that can block loans, rentals or contracts and could set a model for transparency across other algorithmic systems.