Denmark’s Supreme Court has ordered Hillerød Kommune to pay 30,000 kroner in compensation to a woman after the municipality leaked her health information to her husband’s ex-wife.
DR reports that five judges at Højesteret reached the decision on Monday, August 24, 2026. The ruling sharply raises the amount awarded to the woman last August by Østre Landsret, which set compensation at 2,500 kroner.
The mistake was made in April 2019 by an employee at Hillerød Kommune. The employee was processing an access-to-information request from the ex-wife of the woman’s husband.
The man and his ex-wife have a child together. Together with his new wife, the man applied for financial support for the child’s stay at an efterskole, and a range of personal information was submitted to the municipality.
That material showed that the new wife had been diagnosed with a serious mental illness. It also showed that the illness had led to several long periods of sick leave, and that she was in a job training program.
According to DR, the ex-wife used the information in a case at Familieretshuset, where she and her former husband were in dispute over where another shared child should live. She referred to the new wife’s mental health both in an email to Familieretshuset and at a meeting.
Højesteret found that the woman had suffered non-material harm, because the private information reaching Familieretshuset affected her sense of self and honor. The court also concluded that the municipality breached not only data protection rules but her human right to privacy. The amount was set on an overall discretionary assessment.
The woman had claimed 55,000 kroner, and her husband had claimed the same sum. He argued that he was also harmed by the leak about his wife, and that information about his private finances had been disclosed to his ex-wife.
Højesteret found that his right to privacy had been infringed, but not seriously enough to justify compensation. The ruling still has financial consequences for him, because Østre Landsret had ordered him to pay 50,000 kroner in legal costs to Hillerød Kommune. Højesteret set that order aside.
The municipality was ordered by the High Court to pay 50,000 kroner in costs to the woman. Monday’s judgment adds a corresponding amount to cover her costs at the Supreme Court.
DK Nyt carried the same Ritzau report, confirming the compensation amounts and the April 2019 disclosure. The published hearing list from Højesteret shows judgment in case BS-44501/2025-HJR was scheduled for August 24, 2026 at 12.00.
The law firm DLA Piper reported on the earlier decision from August 2025. In that ruling, Østre Landsret found the disclosure unlawful under the GDPR and awarded 2,500 kroner, the figure Højesteret has now increased.
