Overview
- The Federal Court of Justice’s First Civil Senate is hearing Schufa’s appeal on Thursday (case I ZR 97/25) over how long paid-off defaults may be stored, and no judgment has been announced.
- In the underlying case, the Higher Regional Court of Cologne ordered immediate deletion after payment and awarded €500 in damages, finding years-long storage violated the GDPR.
- Germany’s industry code, approved by Hesse’s data protection authority in 2024, permits three years of storage for resolved defaults, with an 18‑month deletion if a one‑off debt is cleared within 100 days.
- Schufa says roughly 564,000 people who only have a resolved-default entry would see their scores improve if such data must be erased once debts are paid.
- The agency argues prior late payers still show a tenfold higher default risk and warns lenders could raise rates or restrict credit; its files cover about 69 million residents and receive around 340,000 daily inquiries.