Facts
The defendant K. is compulsorily insured against accidents with ELVIA Insurance. After an accident in 1989, she received benefits from ELVIA. In 1995, K. requested ELVIA to inspect her files or deliver photocopies. ELVIA refused and offered K. to inspect the files at ELVIA's headquarters in Zurich or at the damage center in Solothurn, or to name a doctor or authorized legal representative to whom photocopies of the files could be sent.
K. filed a complaint with the Federal Data Protection Commission, which upheld the complaint and instructed ELVIA to deliver copies of K.'s files related to the accident of February 13, 1989, created since January 1, 1995. ELVIA files an appeal with the Federal Court, requesting that the decision of the Data Protection Commission be revoked and the matter be referred back to the lower court for a decision of non-entrance.
Considerations
The Federal Court decides that the appeal is admissible, as the contested decision is based on Art. 8 FADP in its application by a federal authority within the meaning of Art. 2 para. 1 lit. b or Art. 3 lit. h FADP.
The court establishes that the right to information under Art. 8 FADP is an independent personal right to notification of personal data, which can be asserted independently of procedural rights to inspect files. The court decides that ELVIA, as a bearer of a worthy own interest, is entitled to appeal.
The court examines the main request of ELVIA, that the Federal Data Protection Commission should not have entered into the complaint, and decides that the complainant did not raise the request for information in the context of claims for benefits under accident insurance law, but rather a purely data protection claim was made. The court decides that the Federal Data…