Court case 4 U 111/21 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2022)
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.
A German court ruled that a cleaning company must provide evidence of paying minimum wage to its employees, even if it involves sharing personal data. The court found that this data sharing is allowed under GDPR if done carefully. This case clarifies how privacy laws interact with labor law obligations.
What happened
A cleaning company was required to provide evidence of minimum wage payments to its employees, despite concerns about data privacy.
Who was affected
Employees of the cleaning company whose wage information was requested by the general contractor.
What the authority found
The court held that GDPR does not prevent the cleaning company from sharing wage evidence, as long as data protection principles are followed.
Why this matters
This ruling clarifies that GDPR allows sharing employee data for legal obligations like wage verification, provided data protection principles are respected. It underscores the need for businesses to balance privacy with compliance requirements.
GDPR Articles Cited
The plaintiff (subcontractor) was a company providing cleaning staff to the defendant (general contractor). In this dispute, the plaintiff claimed the payment of an amount of € 9,837.71 from the defendant as remuneration for cleaning work by their employees of the defendant's properties. The defendant invoked a right of retention with regard to a claim for the provision of evidence of the payment of the minimum wage to the plaintiff's employees working in the defendant's properties. The parties also signed a contract which stated that the plaintiff is obliged to pay the minimum wage according to the German Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz). According to this contract, the defendant had the right to demand up-to-date evidence of this at any time (e.g. submission of timesheets, payrolls, lists of employees). In case of non-submission of requested evidence, the defendant was entitled to withhold payments due. The plaintiff stated that they had fulfilled their obligation to provide evidence by submitting declarations from their tax advisor, according to which the minimum wage was paid. They also stated that the submission of their employees' pay slips, in particular, was precluded by the GDPR since the disclosure of such data would be a violation. The Higher Regional Court Brandenburg held that the declarations of the tax advisor were not evidence which could proof that the plaintiff has actually paid the minimum wage to the employees working on the premises of the defendant. According to the court, the plaintiff was not prevented by the GDPR from providing the defendant with evidence of the payment of minimum wage to the employees. On the contrary, this form of processing of personal data of the plaintiff's employees was, insofar as the limits of necessity and data economy are observed, permitted pursuant to Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The Minimum Wage Act (Mindestlohngesetz) also includes the provision that in business relationships such as that between the palintiff
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Court case 4 U 111/21 in DE
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case 4 U 111/21 - Germany (2022). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
Last updated: