DSB – Court Ruling (Austria, 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.
An Austrian court looked into a case where a municipality monitored a property owner's water usage and cut off supply if it exceeded a set limit. The court had to consider whether this monitoring and action were justified under GDPR. This case is important for property owners and municipalities, as it explores privacy rights related to utility monitoring.
What happened
A municipality monitored a property owner's water usage and cut off supply if it exceeded a daily limit.
Who was affected
The property owner whose water usage was monitored and controlled by the municipality.
What the authority found
The court examined whether the municipality's actions were justified under GDPR, focusing on the balance between privacy rights and operational needs.
Why this matters
This case highlights the privacy implications of utility monitoring and the need for municipalities to balance operational requirements with individuals' privacy rights. It serves as a reminder for local governments to carefully consider GDPR compliance in their monitoring practices.
GDPR Articles Cited
The controller is a municipality. The data subject owns property in the controller’s district. The data subject won a lawsuit against the controller, obliging it to connect the data subject’s property to the municipal drinking water supply. The judgement was limited to the supply needed for a single-family home. The controller complied with the judgement and connected the data subject’s property to its water supply system. It also installed an analogous water meter (not a smart meter) at the beginning of the water pipe to measure the consumption of the data subject’s property. The water meter is checked once a year by the municipality. The results are stored in the municipality’s software application which is hosted in an Austrian datacenter. The data is retained for thirty years to exercise or defend against possible legal claims. Moreover, because multiple times in the past the data subject used vast amounts of water, exceeding the need of a single-family home by far, the municipality installed a system that measured the daily consumption of the data subject. At the beginning, the system worked as follows: An incremental encoder was installed on top of the water meter. This incremental encoder sent digital signals to a programmable logic controller (PLC) at the water supply facility of the controller every time water was used by the data subject. The programmable logic controller counted the signals and if the usage of the data subject exceeded the threshold of 950 liters per day, the PLC closed the solenoid valve of the pipe, cutting of the water supply to the data subject's property. The counter was automatically reset each day to zero. After five months the controller switched to a system where the water supply was not automatically shut off by the PLC but an employee was notified to check whether the alarm was accurate and, if yes, to shut off the water supply manually. After the data subject learned about this conduct of the controller, she asked the contro
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for DSB in AT
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. DSB - Austria (2022). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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