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ARTICLE · 17 JULY 2026

Abusive DSARs After Brillen Rottler And The EDPB’s VRT/NOYB Decision: Relief For Controllers Or False Hope?

A&O Shearman
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On March 19, 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its judgment in Brillen Rottler (C-526/24), addressing two issues that frequently arise in practice...

LuxembourgPrivacy
Catherine Di Lorenzo
Catherine Di Lorenzo
Paul Wagner
Paul Wagner
Antonin Walch
Antonin Walch
Virginie Liebermann
Virginie Liebermann
Author LinkedIn connections

What the CJEU's ruling really changes, and why the EDPB's VRTVRT/NYOB decision matters. 

On March 19, 2026, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued its judgment in Brillen Rottler (C-526/24), addressing two issues that frequently arise in practice:

(i) the misuse of data subject access requests (DSARs) for abusive purposes

(ii) the growing risk of compensation claims under the GDPR.

The Court held that a first DSAR can be refused as “excessive” within the meaning of Article 12(5) GDPR where the controller demonstrates abusive intent in light of all relevant circumstances, for example where the request is aimed at artificially creating the conditions for a compensation claim rather than genuinely understanding the processing and verifying its lawfulness. At first glance, the decision appears to offer controllers a long-awaited tool to push back against abusive or opportunistic DSARs. A closer reading, however, shows that the relief will probably be construed

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