Organization of Urban Transport of Thessaloniki (OASTH) – €10,000 Fine (Greece, 2021)

The Organization of Urban Transport of Thessaloniki (OASTH) was one of the largest transport company in Greece. A few months before OASTH entered in insolvency proceedings, employees of the city of Thessaloniki organized strikes during several days. Those strikes were organized, inter alia, to protest against the fact that dividends had been paid to shareholders, while some due salaries had not been paid to employees. This strike was a central political issue not only for Thessaloniki but also for the entire country. Two years after having been acquired by the Greek State, OASTH remained at the center of many political debates. Aware of this, the President of OASTH decided to implement a policy of transparency towards the public. In 2021, several former shareholders of OASTH started contesting the return/value of the shares of OASTH. In the context of this dispute, some of the former shareholders entered into settlement negotiations with OASTH, while others got involved is a public feud with the company. During a press conference, the identity of several former shareholders involved in the dispute was disclosed by the President of OASTH. On the same day, the names of twenty-nine former shareholders were also published in a press release written by OASTH, together with the percentage of their participation in the capital of OASTH, the date of acquisition of the shares, and the acquisition price in euros. Those information were further picked up by journalists and shared in the press and on social media. Following the publication of these information, nine shareholders decided to exercise their right to access to their personal data, and their right to object to the processing of personal data, in accordance with Article 12 and Article 13 of the Law 2472/1997. OASTH however did not follow up on these requests, before arguing that the shareholders had not paid the administrative fee which was due to submit such requests. In this context, twelve of the former shareholde