DPA case 00276-2022 – Dismissed (Spain, 2022)

The defendant sent an e-mail to his ex-wife, with copy to the counselor of the school where their child study, in which he informs the existence of a criminal proceeding against her, awaiting final trial. The ex-wife has made a complaint because, although the defendant sent this e-mail as a director of a company, he received the information about the criminal situation - not related to the company - of his ex-wife as an individual. In response to the complaint, the defendant stated that it was the claimant herself who firstly sent an e-mail to the school’s counselor, which was answered and generated a chain of e-mails. He also stated that this e-mail address is the one he uses for personal purposes, a circumstance widely known by the claimant, once she has always sent him private messages on that e-mail address. The Spanish DPA has denied the complaint because it considered that the mails took place in an exclusively private and domestic context and, in this context, the claimant involved the school generation an email chain. According to the Spanish DPA, the message sent by the respondent was sent within the framework of his personal and familiar sphere, and not as a company’s director, as the first e-mail in the chain was forwarded by the claimant, who copied the school’s e-mail address on it. It has been considered that the exchange of mail between the former spouses was limited to an exclusively private or domestic activity, which is lawful, based on the 2.2.c, GDPR.