The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has been informed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs that this Ministry, acting in compliance with the Commissioner' letter of warning, has destroyed the records formed so far with information on persons who purchased tickets to "high-risk" sports events.

The Commissioner commended the response by the Ministry and said it was compliant with the law and helped mitigate the risk of potential misuse of personal data; he also commended the fact that the Ministry, acting in compliance with this letter of warning, had instructed all district police administrations by a guidance dispatch how to process such personal data.

The Commissioner had previously inspected compliance of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with the Law on Personal Data Protection, after which he warned the Ministry it had unlawfully processed personal data by creating permanent data files from the information obtained from organisers of sports events in that it had continued to process such data even after the purpose had been achieved.

Without going into the issue of effectiveness of the Law on the Prevention of Violence and Indecent Behaviour at Sports Events in practice and the modest results it has achieved so far, the Commissioner notes that the purpose of the Law was to identify persons for the purpose of bringing misdemeanor or criminal charges against them; once such means of identification are no longer needed (if perpetrators have been identified or if no misdemeanours or criminal offences were committed at an event), the purpose of data has been achieved and any further processing is inadmissible.

The Commissioner also said that the modest effects and highly inconsistent application of the provisions of the Law on the Prevention of Violence and Indecent Behaviour at Sports Events spoke of the need for its revision, both from the aspect of personal data protection and for other reasons.