Spain: Doping and Protection of Athletes’ Personal Data

17 December 2024 - Sven Wassmer

In Spain, the protection of athletes’ personal data in anti-doping procedures and controls has again been the object of a judicial decision.

Sven Wassmer, PhD Abogado & Rechtsanwalt +34 91 319 96 86

The decision was delivered by the Administrative Chamber of the Spanish Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) on 8 October 2024 in sanctions proceeding against the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Health in Sport (Agencia Española de Protección de la Salud en el Deporte). Not only does the ruling reinforce and confirm the right of athletes to the protection of their personal data, but it also classifies data on the physical health of athletes, related to doping control techniques, such as e.g. the results of anti-doping tests, as data concerning health, which hence fall under the stricter protection regime contemplated by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Spanish state regulations on personal data protection.

For this reason, data collected in doping controls are considered specially protected data, thus subjecting the data processing to stricter requirements and establishing higher sanctions for infringements than in the case of personal data that do not fall in any special protection category.

In the abovementioned case, ruled on by the Spanish Supreme Court, the Spanish Agency for the Protection of Health in Sport had published a decision of the Administrative Court of Sport (Tribunal Administrativo del Deporte) on a doping control of an athlete, without fully anonymising the data. This led the Spanish Data Protection Agency to initiate sanctions proceedings. The Spanish Supreme Court confirmed, that publishing the results of the anti-doping test constituted a breach of the athlete’s health data, and accordingly a “very serious” infringement punishable with a higher sanction than in cases of publication of personal data that are not specially protected.

While the Spanish Supreme Court’s ruling only took position regarding the severity of the sanction, the classification of data obtained in doping controls as health data has consequences beyond the sanction as such. It affects aspects such as e.g. the guarantees of protection of this data, the careful consideration of the balance between freedom of information and data protection and the way in which the results are obtained and published. Above all, the ruling underlines that both private and public bodies have to apply maximum diligence when processing these data and publishing resolutions or other documents. In this context, it is important to stress that the Spanish Supreme Court does not call into question the legality of doping controls as such, as long as the fundamental rights of athletes are guaranteed.