In the past few months, we have already reported a negative Schufa entry made by Collectia GmbH from Deggendorf. As in the other proceedings, the now affected customer was with the fitness studio provider FitX Deutschland GmbH. In both cases, reports to Schufa Holding AG resulted from unpaid membership fees.
Reminder without warning
Although the legal subtleties about filing claims with credit agencies such as Schufa Holding AG, infoscore Consumer Data GmbH or Creditreform Boniversum GmbH are still controversial, one can refer to the so-called “five-piece catalog” of § 31 Para 2 BDSG. In general, it can be said that a report to Schufa Holding AG is at least not justified if none of the conditions mentioned there are met.
The constellations No. 4 (sufficient warning) and No. 5 (termination without notice) are therefore often in dispute.
In the present case, it was only a question of whether the person concerned was adequately warned. The client himself stated that he was reminded in February 2020 as well as in June 2020 and also submitted these letters. The minimum deadline of four weeks was thus met.
Upon closer examination of the reminders, however, it became apparent that none of the reminders contained a so-called warning. Although the outstanding amount was reminded, there was no indication that data should be transferred if the claim is not settled. As a consequence, the requirements of Section 31 (2) No. 4 BDSG were not met.
Deletion of the entry is still not easy to achieve
Anyone who assumes that the deletion can be implemented very quickly in such a situation is unfortunately mistaken. Collectia GmbH and SCHUFA Holding AG were contacted at the beginning of September and the error was pointed out.
Schufa Holding AG then asked Collectia GmbH about the case. Collectia GmbH referred to a proper dunning process and communicated the specific data as to when a notice should have been given. Collectia GmbH initially did not respond to the letter of claim from the law firm AdvoAdvice in Berlin.
Only after a reminder did Collectia GmbH turn to lawyer Dr. Sven Tintemann and announced that the claim had been settled and that the entry had been deleted.
In the following period, the deletion of the entry could be confirmed promptly. It is still unclear what information about the dunning letters Collectia GmbH passed on to Schufa Holding AG.
Always have reporting requirements checked by experts
Attorney Dr. Tintemann, an expert in checking data transmissions to credit agencies, was satisfied after the entry was deleted. His comment:
“For almost every negative entry it must be checked whether the reporting requirements are met. When reporting, more errors occur than one would assume. At the same time, not every claim can be deleted early. Anyone who suffers from an entry with the Schufa or other credit agencies can try to bring about a deletion yourself. If this does not succeed, help from a specialized law firm is advisable. “
The AdvoAdvice office is happy to accept inquiries for the purpose of checking entries at credit bureaus on 030 921 000 40 or by email to [email protected]. Please send an extract of your copy of your data, which you can request from the credit agency free of charge in advance.
Photo: Pixabay / Moni Mckein
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