Ulrike A*** (complainant) – Dismissed (Austria, 2020)

In June 2019, the complainant requested erasure of her personal data from the respondent's website, claiming that an article on that website contained wrong statements about her. After the respondent’s refusal to do so, the complainant lodged a complaint with the DSB. The respondent argued that publishing the article on its website qualified as processing carried out for journalistic purposes under Article 85 GDPR and § 9(1) of the Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz - DSG). Due to the derogations in § 9(1) DSG, the DSB would hence not be competent to handle the complaint. *Is the DSB competent to handle the complaint or is the processing on the respondent's website subject to Article 85 GDPR and § 9(1) of the Austrian Data Protection Act? *Did the respondent violate the complaint's right to erasure under Article 17 GDPR? The DSB held, that the respondent qualifies as a media company under § 1(1)(6) of the Austrian Media Act, because it is a company which creates the content of the medium and handles the production, distribution, broadcasting and retrievability of the medium. It further held, that the data processing (publishing the complainant's personal data in an online article) was carried out for journalistic purposes. As the complainant is an former politician and the article revolved around legal procedures that she is involved in there was a public interest in mentioning the complainant's name. Under Article 9(1) DSG, Chapter III and Chapter VI of the GDPR do not apply on data processing carried out by media companies for journalistic purposes. Such GDPR violations must be tried before civil courts. Hence, the DSB considered itself not competent, rejected the complaint and did not investigate the alleged violation of Article 17 GDPR.