A plan from Germany’s justice minister to criminalize the purchase of stolen Swiss bank data has attracted skepticism and critique.

Over the weekend Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said she wanted to begin the process to set such purchases under the law, reacting to a number of bank data purchases from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in a radio interview it is undisputed that such purchases are legally justified, following court rulings, so the justice minister’s plan would need to be examined in detail.

North Rhine-Westphalia finance minister Norbert Walter-Borjans told the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper that the justice minister may not criminalize a court-approved investigative method against tax fraud.

He said the misunderstanding must be clarified.