Customs Information System (CIS)

What is Customs Information System?

The aim of the Customs Information System (CIS) is to assist in preventing, investigating and prosecuting serious contraventions of national laws by making information available more rapidly, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the cooperation and control procedures of the customs administrations of the Member States. The Customs Information System consists of a central database facility (CIS EU), accessible through terminals in each Member State. It comprises exclusively data necessary to achieve its aim mentioned above.

CIS also includes a special database FIDE (hereinafter Customs files identification database), with reference to Article 41a Council Regulation 515/97 and Article 15 Council Decision 2009/917 JHA. The aim of the Customs files identification database is to enable the national authorities responsible for carrying out customs investigations, when opening a file on or investigating one or more persons or businesses, to find out which national authorities of other Member States are investigating or have already investigated these persons or businesses.

Which categories of information are processed in the CIS?

Categories of information processed in the CIS: commodities, means of transport, businesses, persons,fraud trends, availability of expertise goods detained, seized or confiscated and cash detained, seized or confiscated (listed in Article 24 of Regulation 515/97 and in Article 3 of Decision 2009/917/JHA).

The personal data which can be processed in the CIS are listed in Article 25(2) to (5) of Regulation 515/97 and in Article 4(2) of Decision 2009/917/JHA.

What are the rights of data subject?
From the viewpoint of personal data protection, it is important to guarantee certain rights of individuals who can exercise these rights in order to actively participate in protection of their rights and, thus, also their privacy. The rights of persons regarding personal data in the CIS are exercised in accordance with the laws, regulation and procedures of the Member State in which such rights are invoked.

Right to access the data

The right of access is the possibility for individuals who so request to consult the information relating to them stored in data files as referred to in national law. This is a fundamental principle of data protection which enables data subjects to exercise control over personal data kept by third parties.

The right of access shall be refused by the authority:

1. If communication would be likely to prejudice the prevention, investigation and prosecution of operations which are in breach of customs or agriculture legislation.
2. A refusal is necessary to ensure the protection of the Member State, defense and public security.
3. During the period in which personal data of the subject are processed for the purposes of sighting, reporting or discreet surveillance, or when the operational analysis, administrative inquiry or investigation are being processed.

Right to correction or deletion

Any person may, in accordance with the laws, regulations and procedures of each Member State or with the internal rules applicable to the Commission, have personal data relating to them corrected or deleted by each CIS partner if those data are factually inaccurate, or were included or are stored in the CIS contrary to the aim stated in Article 23(2) of Decision 515/97 or if the principles of Article 26 have not been observed.

How to proceed when exercising these rights in the Czech Republic?

The data subject has a right of direct access to his/her data. Any data subject has the right to send a written request to the General Directorate of Customs asserting his/her right to information on and deletion or correction of his/her data processed in the CIS. Information about the processing of personal data in the CIS is to be revealed only to the data subject concerned (or his/her representative). The request must contain identification of the applicant – all first name/s, surname, date and place of birth and address. The General Directorate of Customs is obliged to answer within 30 days. Exercise of the right of access is free of charge. For more information, see www.celnisprava.cz.

Contact details:

General Directorate of Customs
Budějovická 7
14069 Prague 4
Czech Republic

Data box ID: 7puaa4c
Podatelna@cs.mfcr.cz

A guide for exercising the right of access to the Custom Information System

It is recommended to use the contact forms:

Request for providing information regarding personal data processed in the Custom Information System (CIS)
Request for correction or deletion personal data processed in the Custom Information System (CIS)
Request for blocking personal data processed in the Custom Information System (CIS)

Remedies

Any person may bring an action before the court or the authority competent under the law of any member state (Art. 36 (5) Regulation 515/97, Art. 23 Decision 2009/917/JHA) to access, correct, delete or obtain information of to obtain compensation in connection with an alert relating to him (Art. 40 (2) Regulation 515/97, Art. 23 Decision 2009/917/JHA).

When to contact the Office for Personal Data Protection?

The Office for Personal Data Protection is competent to review personal data processing within the national part of the CIS at the request of data subject in the cases where there is a suspicion of an unlawful procedure or where the controller (the General Directorate of Customs) has not provided a satisfactory response. That is why we recommend contacting the Office for Personal Data Protection after the General Directorate of Customs had already been asked for the information. If the data subject contacts the Office for Personal Data Protection first, the request will be forwarded to the controller (General Directorate of Customs), which may lead to delays in processing their request.

It is recommended to use the contact form:

Complaint concerning the processing of personal data in the Custom Information System (CIS)