- Enforcing jurisdiction
- Austria · Geography does not establish applicable law.
- Confirmed applicable legislation
- Privacy topics
unknown data subject (complainant before the DSB) – Court Ruling (Austria, 2022)
Privacy enforcement record
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A court in Austria upheld a decision requiring a chartered accountant to provide access to personal data related to alimony claims. The court ruled that the accountant's refusal to share data based on professional secrecy was not justified. This case highlights the balance between privacy and access rights.
What happened
The court confirmed that the accountant must comply with the data access request from the individual involved in divorce proceedings.
Who was affected
The individual involved in divorce proceedings who requested access to data used by the accountant.
What the authority found
The court determined that the accountant's claim of professional secrecy did not exempt them from providing access to the requested personal data.
Why this matters
This case illustrates the importance of access rights under GDPR, even in sensitive situations. Businesses should be prepared to comply with access requests while considering privacy obligations.
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The data subject and his wife were in divorce proceedings. The wife mandated a chartered accountant (controller) to calculate her (future) alimony claims against the data subject. According to the data subject, the controller's report on the alimony claims was partially based on data that was not publicly available, especially data on the financial situation of a private foundation that was one of the data subject's sources of income. The data subject accused the controller of having obtained this data unlawfully. In July 2018, the data subject requested access under Article 15 GDPR from the controller, especially asking for information on the source of the data and a data copy. As the controller did not reply to the access request, the data subject lodged a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde - DSB) in August 2018. Before the DSB, the controller argued that the report on the alimony claims was based on documents provided by the data subjects wife. The data subject contested to have ever handed any information concerning the private foundation to his wife. The controller did not provide access to the data subject in the course of the procedure before the DSB. In April 2019, the DSB issued a decision and held that the controller had failed to comply with the data subject's access request and ordered the controller to comply or to inform the data subject of the reasons for not doing so under Article 12(4) GDPR. The controller appealed the decision, arguing that it could not comply with the data subject's access request because that would violate its statutory professional secrecy obligation under § 80 WTBG 2017 (Wirtschaftstreuhandberufsgesetz 2017) in connection with Article 15(4) GDPR, as the data subject's wife had not waived this secrecy obligation. The BVwG dismissed the appeal and upheld the DSB's decision (with some minor edits). It held that the professional secrecy obligation under § 80 WTBG 2017 does not provide a gen
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (2)
Other cases involving unknown data subject (complainant before the DSB) in AT
Court Ruling
Details
Ruling Date
28 July 2022
Authority
Datenschutzbehörde
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. unknown data subject (complainant before the DSB) - Austria (2022). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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