The complaint concerns public access to documents related to the German constitutional court’s ruling on the ECB’s Public Sector Purchase Programme. The ECB refused access, invoking an exception under the EU's rules on public access to documents. It argued that disclosing the documents could undermine the protection of public interest as regards financial, monetary and economic policy, as well as the confidentiality of proceedings of its bodies and decision-making process.

The Ombudsman opened an inquiry and sought to inspect the documents in question.