Recital 44

(44) The publication of the personal data of convicted persons contained in judicial decisions should only be possible in duly justified exceptional cases following a case-by-case assessment, weighing the public interest against the rights to respect for private life and protection of the personal data of the convicted person provided for in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (the ‘Charter’), respectively. The publication of those personal data should therefore only be possible in cases of serious criminal offences and where strong dissuasive effects are needed. The case-by-case assessment could take into account elements such as the gravity of the damage caused to the environment, the harm suffered by natural persons, or both, whether the criminal offence has been committed repeatedly in the same environmental sector, and whether the criminal offence was committed by or for the benefit of a large company active in several Member States or by an important market player in a specific environmental sector. Any processing of personal data in the context of this Directive should comply with the applicable Union and national data protection legislation, in particular Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (9) and Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council (10). That data protection legislation includes an obligation for Member States to provide for appropriate safeguards for the rights and freedoms of data subjects when publishing all or part of the judicial decision that relates to the criminal offence committed and the penalties or measures imposed. Additionally, the publication of the decision imposing the penalties or measures upon a legal person should be applied without prejudice to the national rules governing the anonymisation of judicial decisions or the duration of publication.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-09-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.