One of the most common questions asked by clients in recent days is whether a merchant or other person can require your identification document when submitting an RVT certificate.

The Government Decree on Provisional Measures for the Prevention and Control of Infections with the Infectious Disease COVID-19, which entered into force on 8 November 2021, stipulates that when verifying compliance with the RVT condition, an individual must be required to provide an identification document to prove their identity.

Such entitlement of a public person or a person of the private sector (e.g., a merchant or a security guard) derives directly from the Personal Data Protection Act (ZVOP-1) and is therefore legal.

In accordance with Article 3 of ZVOP-1, the personal data being processed must be adequate and appropriate in terms of scope with regard to the purposes for which they are collected and further processed.

With request to access the identification document, the merchant does not act contrary to ZVOP-1, as in order to avoid fraud, it is his duty to verify the customer’s identity.

The legal basis for access to any identification documents can be either Article 18 of ZVOP-1, if it concerns the entry of personal data into the database or the individual’s consent.

The legal basis is also the provision of the first paragraph of Article 82 of ZVOP-1, which explicitly stipulates that a person of the public or private sector may, for the purposes of protecting the property, life or body of individuals and order in its premises, requires from an individual, intending to enter or exit premises to provide all or some personal data and, if necessary, may also verify personal data by inspecting the identification document.

In this respect, the relevant issue must be divided from the issue of the adequacy of the decrees imposing the obligation to submit and verify compliance with the RVT condition. The Constitutional Court will assess the latter on the basis of the initiative of the Information Commissioner. Until the Constitutional Court decides on this, the decrees are valid and must be respected.