Belgium’s Court of Appeal decision emphasizes the importance of consumer privacy at financial institutions with Belgian operations.

The court ruled that ING Groep NV’s Belgian unit was guilty of breaching the privacy of its customers as part of an effort to monitor sales practices of independent third-party insurance brokers, Dow Jones Newswires reported on February 22.

ING Belgium was accused of getting customer records of insurance sales to later force independent brokers to favor ING products. Third-party brokers in Belgium are obliged by exclusive contracts to sell bank products but they are free to decide on insurance products they want to sell.

A number of ING customers complained that they had faced pressure from the Amsterdam-based company to disclose details of recent transactions with brokers, said Filip Willems, a lawyer for the BZB, a group that represents independent Belgian brokers. The BZB and the Federation of Insurance and Financial Intermediaries sued ING after receiving a number of customer complaints.

ING Belgium said it accepted the court’s decision. The court didn’t issue a financial penalty for the abuses.