Nomodidattica S.r.l. (owner of the Moltocomuni website) – €10,000 Fine (Italy, 2024)

On February 13, 2023, Nomodidattica S.r.l., a company managing the Moltocomuni website, published an article linking to a court judgment from the Tribunal of Vicenza. This judgment, accessible via the link, contained sensitive, unredacted information about minors involved in a legal dispute between two municipalities regarding social assistance costs. The judgment included identifiable information, such as minors' names, places of residence, the care facilities they were placed in, and details of their stays. On June 27, 2023, The Regional Ombudsman for Veneto (an independent public office within the Veneto region of Italy that serves to protect the rights and interests of individuals), reported the publication to Garante, highlighting that the judgment’s full content was available online without any anonymization, violating GDPR and the Italian Data Protection Code, especially considering the minors’ information. On November 9, 2023, Garante contacted the controller to address the issue and they immediately removed the article and the court judgment. The controller argued that the article aligned with journalistic standards, aiming to inform public administration employees on relevant cases. However, they admitted an error in assuming the judgment had already been anonymized by the court. On April 15, 2024, Garante formally notified the controller of potential data protection violations and opened a formal inquiry. The controller provided a formal response, explaining the free-access nature of the website, focused on public sector issues. They reiterated that they intended to inform without directly identifying the minors, but they acknowledged failing to anonymize the linked judgment. Garante ruled that Nomodidattica’s handling of minors’ data was unlawful, breaching principles of lawfulness, fairness, data minimization, and essential anonymization, violating Article 5 GDPR. For this reason, the DPA issued a fine of €10,000 imposed on Nomodidattica S.r.l. under