Bindl v. European Commission (T-354/22)

A crossroads for European digital citizenship?

Abstract

In its first judgment of 2025, the EU General Court ruled (in an extended composition) on the case Bindl v. European Commission (T-354/22)1, the relevance of which will certainly only emerge with the passage of time, but which may already stand out as an important crossroads for the construction of European digital citizenship, not only because of its inaugural status - since it is the first decision of 2025, proclaimed by the Council of Europe as the European Year of Digital Citizenship Education. The Court condemned the Commission for failing to comply with the conditions for the transfer of personal data to third countries, while rejecting other claims of the appellant. The judgment is part of the Court of Justice's jurisprudence on data protection, which outlines the development of European digital citizenship. In spite of some critical aspects, the ruling confirms the importance of the fundamental rights of the European digital citizen enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, highlighting the figure of the digital citizen actively asserting his or her rights as distinct from the “data subject”.