Action brought on 28 June 2013 – CN v Parliament

(Case T-343/13)

Language of the case: Italian

Parties

Applicant: CN (Brumath, France) (represented by: M. Velardo, lawyer)

Defendant: European Parliament

Form of order sought

The applicant claims that the Court should:

order the European Union and the European Parliament to pay the applicant EUR 1 000 for the material damage suffered, plus interest calculated at the rate of 6.75%;

order the European Union and the European Parliament to pay the applicant EUR 40 000 for the non-material damage suffered, plus interest calculated at the rate of 6.75%;

order the European Union and the European Parliament to pay the costs.

Pleas in law and main arguments

By the present action, CN, a retired former official of the Council, seeks compensation for the material and non-material damage suffered as a result of the publication of an extract from a petition submitted by the applicant containing items of personal data, including information concerning his state of health and the fact that there is a disabled individual in his family, on the European Parliament’s own website, which may also be accessed by users from outside that institution.

That information was made widely available, given that it was possible to gain access to the petition extract published by the Parliament by entering the applicant’s name in the Google search engine.

In spite of requests made by the applicant, the Parliament withdrew the publication of the personal data in question only after the applicant had instructed a lawyer.

As grounds for his claim that the European Parliament acted unlawfully, the applicant alleges that the following have been infringed:

Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms;

Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights;

Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, adopted on 13 December 2006 and ratified by the European Union on 23 December 2010;

Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data (OJ 2001 L 8, p. 1).