DSB (DPA) – Court Ruling (Austria, 2023)
General GDPR enforcement action
This case relates to broader data protection obligations, not specifically to cookie or consent banner compliance. It is not included in cookie statistics or the Risk Calculator.
The Austrian Data Protection Authority dismissed a complaint about a court judgment being sent via WhatsApp and email. The complaint was based on a claim that this violated the right to secrecy. This case shows the importance of handling sensitive information carefully, even in legal contexts.
What happened
A court judgment was sent non-anonymised to a recipient via WhatsApp and email.
Who was affected
The person whose court judgment was shared without anonymization.
What the authority found
The authority ruled that the complainant had no legitimate interest in legal protection regarding the email transmission, as it was not part of the proceedings.
Why this matters
This ruling highlights the need for careful handling of sensitive information in legal communications. It reminds organizations to be cautious when sharing potentially sensitive documents.
GDPR Articles Cited
View original scraped data
Original data from scraper before AI verification against source document.
National Law Articles
On 4 October 2020, the controller sent a non-anonymised court judgement of the Regional Criminal Court (Landesgericht für Strafsachen) as a PDF file to a different recipient via WhatsApp. Less than a year later, on 28 July 2021, the same non-anonymised court judgement was sent to the same recipient again, this time via email. The data subject lodged two complaints with the DPA (DSB) regarding the violation of their right to secrecy under [https://ris.bka.gv.at/eli/bgbl/i/1999/165/A1P1/NOR40139563?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Kundmachungsorgan=&Index=&Titel=DSG&Gesetzesnummer=&VonArtikel=&BisArtikel=&VonParagraf=1&BisParagraf=&VonAnlage=&BisAnlage=&Typ=&Kundmachungsnummer=&Unterzeichnungsdatum=&FassungVom=05.07.2026&VonInkrafttretedatum=&BisInkrafttretedatum=&VonAusserkrafttretedatum=&BisAusserkrafttretedatum=&NormabschnittnummerKombination=Und&ImRisSeitVonDatum=&ImRisSeitBisDatum=&ImRisSeit=Undefined&ResultPageSize=100&Suchworte=&Position=1&SkipToDocumentPage=true&ResultFunctionToken=431b02ed-230a-4be2-a50e-f77708a2abbc § 1(1) DSG]. In the first proceedings (DSB-D124.5125), the DPA ruled on the transmission of the judgement via WhatsApp and notably highlighted that the transmission via email was not the subject of the proceedings. In the second procedure (DSB-D124.0310/22) concerning the transmission via email, the DPA dismissed the complaint on the grounds that the data subject had no legitimate interest of legal protection and referred to its first administrative decision. The data subject appealed against the second decision of the DPA and asked the court to decide in that subject matter. In their opinion, the two transmissions of the judgement at different times represent two separate data processing operations. First, the court held that, in this specific case, there was no identity of the subject matter in comparison with the first proceedings within the meaning of § 68(1) AVG. In accordance with established legal practice ([https://ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.wxe?Res
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (3)
Other cases involving DSB (DPA) in AT
Court Ruling
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. DSB (DPA) - Austria (2023). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
Last updated: