unnkown police investigator (data subject and complainant before the DSB) – Court Ruling (Austria, 2020)

The data subject is a member of the police unit called task force for combating street crime (Einsatzgruppe für die Bekämpfung der Straßenkriminalität - EGS) and operates as an undercover agent. After being summoned to a hearing by an parliamentary committee of inquiry, his full name was disclosed in the minutes of this hearing which were published online. The data subject requested the removal of his full name from the minutes since revealing his identity this would jeapordize his work as an undercover agent. After the parliamentary committee rejected his request, he filed a complaint with the Austrian DPA (Datenschutzbehörde -DSB). The DSB rejected the complaint because it did not consider itself competent. The European legal system forsees a separation of state powers. As a parliamentary committee of inquiry is part of the legislative state power, the DSB - as part of the administrative state power - could not exert control over it. Furthermore, § 35 Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz - DSG) only allows for the DSB to exert its investigative and corrective powers over certain supreme administrative organs (such as the Federal Ministers), but not over a parliamentary committee. The data subject filed an appeal against this decision with the Austrian Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht - BVwG), which now issued its judgment. Is the DSB competent to exert its investigative and corrective powers over a parliamentary committee of inquiry and handle a data subject's complaint regarding the violation of his GDPR rights by the parliamentary committee? The BVwG initially held that the exemption under Article 2(2)(a) GDPR (processing of personal data in the course of an activity which falls outside the scope of Union law) does not apply on the case at hand. According to the BVwG, the substantive provisions of the GDPR and the DSG are also applicable to acts which, like those of a parliamentary committee of inquiry, are attributable to th