BGH concedes four judgments – court must check information about Schufa score again

The dispute over Schufa's obligation to provide information on its scores is entering another round. The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) overturned four judgments of the Dresden Higher Regional Court (OLG) insofar as decisions had been made to the detriment of Schufa and remanded the proceedings for a new hearing and decision. The Higher Regional Court should now examine whether the plaintiffs were significantly impaired by the Schufa score.

Four private individuals had filed a lawsuit against Schufa because they considered the scoring process to be non-transparent and the information provided to them was inadequate. As part of the so-called data copy, Schufa gave them information about their stored data and score values ​​transmitted over the last twelve months.

That wasn't enough for the Dresden Higher Regional Court: a year ago, it ordered Schufa to disclose further information to the plaintiffs, such as the weighting of the score criteria.

However, the findings of the Higher Regional Court do not support this condemnation of Schufa, decided the First Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice. The court should therefore have examined whether the score is decisive for whether a third party to whom the score is transmitted enters into or terminates a contractual relationship with the respective plaintiff. “In principle, the plaintiffs have to explain and prove this, although they are given considerable relief in the presentation and proof,” said the BGH Senate.

Contrary to what some other higher regional courts have assumed, according to the BGH, it is sufficient for the plaintiff to state that Schufa has transmitted a score to a company and that a decision that is disadvantageous to him is made in connection with this - for example, if he is denied a loan. Then there is the assumption that the score was decisive for this decision, explained the Karlsruhe Senate.

What is important is that the procedures refer to Schufa's old scoring procedure. Since March 17, 2026, the credit agency has been using a new score that consumers should be able to understand more easily.

Schufa wants to completely abolish the old score by the end of 2028. And the legal rules of the game are also about to change: On November 20th, an amendment to the Federal Data Protection Act will come into force, which is intended to make creditworthiness scoring more transparent and understandable overall.