Telefónica Móviles España, SAU – €75,000 Fine (Spain, 2021)
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.
Telefónica Móviles España, SAU was fined EUR 75,000 after unauthorized people pretended to be a customer and transferred a phone number without proper checks. This led to a SIM card being wrongly issued, blocking the real user's access. Companies must ensure robust identity verification to protect customer data.
What happened
Telefónica allowed unauthorized third parties to transfer a customer's phone number without proper authentication.
Who was affected
The affected individuals were customers whose phone numbers were transferred without their consent, impacting their service access.
What the authority found
The Spanish DPA ruled that Telefónica failed to authenticate users properly, violating GDPR's requirement for secure data processing.
Why this matters
This case highlights the importance of strong identity verification processes to prevent unauthorized access to personal data. Businesses should review their security measures to protect customer information.
GDPR Articles Cited
The Spanish DPA (AEPD) imposed a fine of EUR 75,000 on Telefónica Móviles España, SAU. The controller had assigned five telephone lines with five numbers to the data subject as part of a mobile phone contract. One of the numbers was used by her son. When he was no longer able to use the mobile data, he contacted the controller. The controller informed him that the mobile data had been deactivated because the number was no longer in his possession. It turned out that unauthorized third parties had pretended to be the data subject and had the number transferred to a third party without the controller requiring authentication for this. Thereupon the unauthorized third parties had requested and received a replacement SIM card under the pretense of an alleged loss or theft. As a result, the son's SIM card was blocked.
Related Enforcement Actions (2)
Other enforcement actions involving Telefónica Móviles España, SAU in ES
Fine
€75K
Details
Fine Date
21 January 2021
Authority
Agencia Española de Protección de Datos
Fine Amount
€75,000
Enforcement Tracker ID
ETid-534
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Telefónica Móviles España, SAU - Spain (2021). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
Last updated: