Guilty pleasure: pleading alongside (!) the Belgian Data Protection Authority not just once but three times over the past few months. I’m used to being on the other side, but when a decision isn’t against your client but a third party, you might have the unusual opportunity to support the authority’s position in Court.
A fun tidbit about the Market Court (part of the Brussels Court of Appeal) is that it handles cases in both French and Dutch, sometimes during the same court hearing. A few months ago there was a hearing for two cases concerning a same Belgian DPA decision, but one in French and the other in Dutch, with a common roster of three parties present (including the Belgian DPA) + one additional party in one of the cases. It was quite the experience to plead both cases one after another in two different languages (while other parties switched lawyers).
Looking forward to being on my “usual” side of the aisle next time I come here – against the Belgian DPA!
Data protection GDPR privacy
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