2024-02-17 06:42:30
Schufa is coming under fire again: consumer advocates have filed a complaint and report against the credit agency. What it’s about this time.
Schufa is an institution that is always a nuisance not only for many consumers, but also for consumer advocates. The credit reporting agency is often accused of saying that the Schufa score leads to discrimination. If this is not good, people often cannot conclude contracts, loans or even rental agreements.
In addition, the private company collects data about consumers and makes money from it. If you want access to your data in the form of a credit report, you have to pay for this service. However, there is also a free copy that every citizen has access to once a year.
Free information is hidden from customers
But according to the European consumer protection organization Nyob, this is not sufficiently pointed out on the Schufa website. That’s why the consumer advocates have now submitted a complaint and report to the Hessian data protection authority, as they report on their website.
Nyob accuses Schufa of deliberately concealing the fact that consumers have a right to free information. Instead, they only advertise the “credit report”, which costs 29.95 euros. “Using manipulative designs, the company is trying to force the sale of paid products and even falsely present the free legal information as unsuitable for presentation to third parties,” says Nyob.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) even stipulates that companies must support consumers in obtaining access to the free data copy. At Schufa, customers are actively discouraged from sharing the free version with third parties because it contains sensitive data and does not contain a daily calculation of the Schufa score, as it says on the website.
Schufa violates European data protection law
Another point of criticism from consumer advocates: The free information only contains a “basic score”, while the paid version contains six different “industry scores” – i.e. significantly more data. In addition, customers receive the printed “credit report” faster than the free “data copy”.
Martin Baumann, data protection lawyer at Nyob, explains that according to the GDPR, “companies must make all data available immediately, free of charge, easily accessible and transparently”. According to Nyob, with all of the points mentioned, Schufa is “violating European data protection law on several occasions,” which is why the organization has now filed the complaint and report.