Property development company – €50,000 Fine (Germany, 2022)
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.
A property development company in Germany was fined EUR 50,000 for using property owner data without permission and failing to inform them where the data came from. The company received the data from a surveyor who accessed it without the owners' knowledge. This case emphasizes the need for transparency in data collection.
What happened
A property development company used data from a surveyor to contact property owners without informing them of the data's origin.
Who was affected
Property owners whose data was accessed from the electronic land register without their knowledge.
What the authority found
The DPA found the company violated GDPR by processing data without a valid legal basis and failing to inform data subjects about the data's origin.
Why this matters
This case highlights the importance of transparency and legal compliance in data collection and usage. Businesses should ensure they have a clear legal basis for processing personal data and inform individuals about where their data comes from.
GDPR Articles Cited
The DPA of Baden-Württemberg has imposed a fine of EUR 50,000 on a property development company. The company had sent a letter to a property owner in which it made a purchase price offer for their property. The letter did not contain any information on the origin of the data. Even after the owner asked the company where the data had been obtained, the company did not reply. In the course of its investigation, the DPA discovered that a surveyor had made use of his authority to inspect the electronic land register and, in two cases, had identified several hundred property owners without their knowledge. Subsequently, the surveyor had passed the relevant information to the company, which contacted the property owners. The DPA considered this to be, on the one hand, a violation of Art. 6 (1) GDPR and, on the other hand, a violation of Art. 14 GDPR due to the lack of information on the origin of the data.
Related Enforcement Actions (0)
No other enforcement actions found for Property development company in DE
This is the only recorded action for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
Fine Date
21 September 2022
Authority
Bundesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz
Fine Amount
€50,000
Enforcement Tracker ID
ETid-1399
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Property development company - Germany (2022). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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