VG Berlin - 42 K 25/25
German court orders Jehovah's Witnesses to provide former members GDPR access to personal data.
A German court has ruled that a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation must provide former members with a copy of an introductory letter containing their personal data. The court found that religious law restrictions on data access are only valid if they comply with GDPR, and a simple overview of data is insufficient for verifying processing legality. This decision emphasizes the primacy of EU law over religious data protection rules when they conflict with GDPR.
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The lesson from this incident
Full lessonA Berlin court ruled that a Jehovah's Witnesses congregation violated GDPR by denying a former member access to their personal data, hiding behind internal religious data protection frameworks. The root issue is that the organization failed to recognize EU law supremacy — GDPR Article 17 and Article 15 rights cannot be overridden by internal religious or organizational policy. Providing only a vague 'overview' of data processing is legally insufficient; data subjects are entitled to actual copies of documents containing their personal data. This case matters because any organization — religious, non-profit, or commercial — that processes EU residents' personal data must fully comply with GDPR regardless of internal governance rules.