BGH ruling: Schufa must provide information about the score calculation

BGH ruling Schufa must become more transparent in certain cases As of: October 21, 2026 • 3:18 p.m

There is always criticism of Schufa's scoring system. The accusation is that it is too opaque. The Federal Court of Justice has now decided: Under certain conditions, Schufa must provide information about the calculation.

For banks or landlords, the Schufa score is a means of assessing whether a contractual partner can pay or not. To create the score, Schufa collects consumer data. The problem, however, is that how exactly it is formed remains largely unclear.

Consumer lawyer Thomas Schulte, who is well versed in the topic, compares the Schufa score to a school grade: "And of course as a student you also want to know how things were weighted, how did it come about in the first place."

It's not about finding out every detail, but as a consumer you want to know: "If I behave this way and that, if I do this and that, then my credit rating will go up or down," says Schulte.

“The consumer must have a disadvantage” - ARD legal editorial team explains judgment on the Schufa score tagesschau24, October 21, 2026 • 11:00 a.m. Private individuals wanted information about the score calculation Now the Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has decided on the lawsuits brought by four private individuals. They also wanted information from Schufa about how it calculates their score. The BGH says: Schufa only has to provide information about how the score value is formed under certain conditions. The claim exists if the Schufa score was decisive in a company deciding for or against a contract with the consumer.

The plaintiff must prove that the score was decisive. But the BGH has now made this easier for them with its ruling. After the decision, a plaintiff only has to show that Schufa passed the score on to a company or bank and that, for example, he did not get a loan shortly afterwards.

If he succeeds, then according to the judgment it is assumed that the Schufa score was actually decisive for the negative decision, and there is a right to comprehensive information. The lower courts must now apply these principles in the four specific cases.

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The Federal Court of Justice's decision concerned the old Schufa score system. This can be used until the end of 2028 due to a transition period. There is now a new system that is clearer from Schufa's point of view. After the hearing, Schufa press spokeswoman Tanja Panhans explained why this happened: "We know the criticism of Schufa's black box, we want to resolve it."

Schufa wants to clearly show consumers what data is stored about them and explain how Schufa works. "And we also want to explain the score value to them and thus make our contribution to how a decision is made."

Ultimately, a lot of other information goes into a decision made by a bank or other company. “But we provide the part that we can contribute to transparency,” said the Schufa press spokeswoman.

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For this reason, Schufa also wants to make the old score more transparent next month. However, it is also legally obliged to do so, as new regulations in data protection law will come into force in November, which are intended to make such information easier.

How exactly this will work in practice is currently not clear. However, it is already clear that the new legal rules will strengthen the rights of consumers.

File number: I ZR 227/25 to I ZR 230/25

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This topic in the program: tagesschau24 | News | Oct 21, 2026 | 11:00 a.m.BR24 Radio | News | Oct 21, 2026 | 1:02 p.m