Discussions are taking place in Luxembourg on the ‘right to make mistakes’

The Office of the Ombudsman of Luxembourg has approached the Chamber of Deputies with a proposal to enshrine in law a mechanism allowing citizens to rectify administrative errors without catastrophic consequences. The initiative was prompted by rapid digitalisation and the increasing complexity of bureaucratic procedures, which mean that even a minor oversight — a missing signature or an incorrectly ticked box on an online form — can lead to the refusal of payments, fines or the revocation of permits.

One example cited is the case of a claimant who was refused benefits by the employment agency Adem because of a single incorrectly ticked box. The applicant mistakenly ticked the box for ‘unfit for work’, believing that his status as a person undergoing vocational retraining implied precisely that. As a result of this formal failure to meet the ‘readiness for work’ criterion, the system automatically rejected the application.

The Ombudsman suggests that Luxembourg follow the example of neighbouring countries, in particular France, where a legally enshrined right to make a mistake is already in place. The key principles of the proposed mechanism include:

• Good faith (Bonne foi): the right to correct data is granted only if the error was made unintentionally.
• Exclusion of abuse: the mechanism will not apply to cases of fraud or gross breaches of administrative regulations.
• Institutional regulation: it is proposed that a clear legal framework be established to enable citizens to legally rectify unintentional errors.

The need for reform stems from the fact that the administrative environment is becoming increasingly difficult for the average user to navigate. The official communiqué emphasises that the ‘human factor’ is inevitable, and that a punitive approach to formal inaccuracies runs counter to the principles of justice. Legislators must now decide to what extent this mechanism can be integrated into the Grand Duchy’s legal system to facilitate dialogue between the state and society.