DSB (Austria) – Court Ruling (Austria, 2021)

The data subjects and the controller are neighbours. The controller has its business located at the beginning of the street section whereas the data subjects’ business is at the end of the section which is a dead end. They are entrenched in a neighbourly dispute for years. The controller installed two self-triggering cameras on its premises pointing towards the data subjects’ business and capturing the street. The camera took pictures of the data subjects without their consent. The reasons given by the controller for installing the cameras were as follows: * constant loitering of one of the data subjects around the premises of the controller * taking pictures of the premises * numerous (about 300) complaints to the trade authorities concerning the business of the controller * throwing of rubbish bags over the fence (which the court did not see as proven) The court confirmed its view that special national provisions on video surveillance and image processing are inapplicable since the GDPR lacks an opening clause for them (cmp. BVwG W211 2210458-1/10 https://gdprhub.eu/index.php?title=BVwG_-_W211_2210458-1/10). The court held that the surveillance is not justified under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. To the court it was not clear how image recordings could deter people from filing unjustified reports because people are in principle free to be in public traffic areas, even if it amounts to loitering, and free to file reports with the authorities on the basis of observations made in public traffic areas. Furthermore, the court reasoned that installing cameras could also not be an effective and therefore not an appropriate measure against the taking of photos by means of personally-held cameras, because they could in no way prevent such behavior. Furthermore, the court mentioned that even if “the throwing of rubbish bags over the fence” were proven, the processing would not have been justified under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR since the captured space is exceeding the general recomme