Following the publication of its response to a data subject in a German newspapers the “Standard“, the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (DPA) took this opportunity to respond to recurring criticism and draw the attention of people on its actual enforcement
Germany: €35.3 Million Fine For Excessive Employee’s Monitoring Activities In H&M’s Service Center
The Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information imposed a 35.3 Million Euros Fine on H&M for illicit HR data procssing carried out in its Service Center based in Nuremberg. Indeed, the Authority discovered that the management team
Germany-Antitrust Law: Facebook’s Wrongful GDPR Practice Hinders Competition
By a decision of 23 June 2020, the German Federal Supreme Court provisionally confirms the allegation of abuse of a dominant position by Facebook because its users were not given the choice over the level of personalisation of their Facebook experience, which entails the collection of data from sources outside the Facebook network (e.g. Instragram, internet browsing etc.).
The Court considered that Facebook practice may hinder the competition in the social network and online advertising market due to its dominant position and provisionally upheld the decision of the German Federal Cartel Office (“Bundeskartellamt”) prohibiting Facebook from processing personal data collected outside the Facebook environment without the users’ additional consent.
This decision is interesting as it shows that in certain cases a breach of GDPR provisions may also have consequences on competition law matters.
Germany: 14.5 M€ fine for data storage in breach of the GDPR
On October 30th 2019, the Berlin Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued a fine of around 14.5 million Euros against Deutsche Wohnen SE for keeping data in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Although this decision is mainly about