Right on automated decisions (GDPR)

The right on automated decisions, from article 22 of the General Data Protection Regulation, frames decisions producing legal effects or significantly affecting a person when they are based solely on automated processing, without real human intervention. The person concerned has in principle the right not to be subject to such a decision, save for framed exceptions, and benefits from safeguards: information, the right to obtain human intervention, to express their point of view and to contest the decision. This provision, predating the AI Act, is a major legal basis for framing algorithmic decisions in Europe, particularly for scoring, credit, recruitment and insurance itself. For the insurance sector, it has a double bearing: it frames the use insurers make of algorithms in pricing and underwriting, and it structures the liability of professional insureds who resort to automated decisions. Compliance with these safeguards is a determinant of conformity and litigation exposure.

An insurer automatically refusing a contract solely on the basis of an algorithmic score must, under the GDPR, allow the person to obtain human intervention and contest the decision.

GDPR article 22, décision automatisée RGPD, automated decision-making, article 22