Recital 57

(57) To assess the credit status of a consumer, the creditor should also consult credit databases. The legal and factual circumstances may require that such consultations vary in scope. To prevent any distortion of competition among creditors, those who are supervised and fully comply with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 should have access to private or public credit databases concerning consumers in a Member State where they are not established under non-discriminatory conditions compared with creditors established in that Member State. Member States should facilitate the cross-border access to private or public databases, in compliance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679. To enhance reciprocity, credit databases should as a minimum hold information on consumers’ arrears in repayment of the credit, on the type of credit and on the identity of the creditor, in accordance with Union and national law. Creditors and credit intermediaries should not process special categories of data, such as health data, referred to in Article 9(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, nor information obtained from social networks, since neither those categories of data nor such information should be used for the purpose of assessing consumer creditworthiness. Credit databases providers should have processes in place to ensure that information contained in their databases is up-to-date and accurate. Where the credit application is rejected on the basis of a consultation of a database, creditors should inform consumers without undue delay and free of charge of the result of such consultation and of the details of the database consulted as well as the categories of data taken into account. Moreover, to ensure consumer awareness, Member States should ensure that consumers are informed about the registration of any credit repayment arrears in a database in a timely manner and within 30 days of the registration, for instance by sending them a warning via email asking them to access the database to view their own information regarding arrears in repayment of credit.

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Source: EUR-Lex CELLAR · retrieved 2026-07-30 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.