Marktplaats/Stokke: Registering personal data of every advertiser not required

District Court Zwolle/Lelystad, 14 March 2007, Stokke A.S. versus Marktplaats B.V. (a Dutch subsidiary of Ebay) 

In its decision the court judges that Marktplaats may not be required to register the name, address and residence of all users of Marktplaats and neither of users who place an advertisement with regard to a Stokke product.

According to the court, Stokke's interest in these data is limited. Registering personal data of every Marktplaats user may not be required of Marktplaats because of the consequences this will have on Marktplaats' business operations. Furthermore, implementing a filter and registering personal data of users who place an advertisement with regard to a Stokke product, will cost Marktplaats a more than negligible amount of money and will impose an obligation on Marktplaats to implement such a filter for other rights holders as well. The limited interest of Stokke with regard to the data does therefore not equal out the interest that Marktplaats has in not implementing such a filter.

The court therefore denies all Stokke's claims.

Read the entire judgement here (judgment made available by Christiaan Alberdingk  Thijm, Solv)