Court case W256 2275675-1 – Court Ruling (Austria, 2023)

Court Ruling
Datenschutzbehörde12 October 2023Austria
final
Court Ruling

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 court in Austria ruled on a case where a person requested to change their gender on a public service platform. The court decided that the service provider did not handle the request properly, which is significant for how personal data changes are managed. This ruling underlines the importance of respecting individuals' rights to update their personal information.

What happened

A person requested to change their gender on a public service platform, but the request was not handled correctly.

Who was affected

The individual who sought to change their gender on the platform.

What the authority found

The Austrian DPA found that the public service provider did not comply with the request for gender change in a timely manner.

Why this matters

This case sets a precedent for how personal data changes should be managed. Companies must ensure they have the systems in place to accommodate such requests promptly.

GDPR Articles Cited

Art. 16 GDPR
Art. 12(3) GDPR

National Law Articles

§38 AVG
Decision AuthorityBVwG
Reviewed AuthorityDSB (Austria)
Full Legal Summary
Detailed

On 9 March 2023, a data subject asked the Arbeitsmarktservice (the public employment service), as a controller, to change their gender on the platform from “male” to “divers”. In this, the data subject also submitted an official document proving the change of gender entry in the civil register. On 15 March, the controller replied that it could not do so as it was impossible to with the software used. A few days later, the data subject filed a complaint with the Austrian DPA (DSB) claiming that their right to rectification under Article 16 GDPR had been violated. In its submissions, the controller stated that it was planning to implement a system allowing to change one’s gender on the platform, but this would only be available in June 2023, that is, still within the deadline of additional two months foreseen in Article 12(3) GDPR. The controller claimed that, once the technical changes will be implemented, it will proceed to change the data subject’s gender. The data subject submitted that the controller could have complied with their request by June 2023, if the controller would have informed the data subject about the additional time needed, even though the controller actually had enough time before that in order to duly adapt its technical system. Since the controller did not do that, but instead answered that they will not follow the request, Article 12(3) GDPR is not relevant. Later, however, the controller let the DSB know that it would take it even longer to adopt the technical implementations required to allow the data subject to change their gender on the platform. The DSB, however, suspended the proceedings on the basis of [https://ris.bka.gv.at/NormDokument.wxe?Abfrage=Bundesnormen&Gesetzesnummer=10005768&FassungVom=2017-07-12&Artikel=&Paragraf=38&Anlage=&Uebergangsrecht= Article 38 of the General Administrative Procedures Act (AVG)] until the CJEU delivers its judgment on the preliminary questions in case C-247/23, received on 18 April 2023, which concern

Outcome

Court Ruling

A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.

Related Cases (0)

No other cases found for Court case W256 2275675-1 in AT

This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.

Details

Ruling Date

12 October 2023

Authority

Datenschutzbehörde

About this data

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Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case W256 2275675-1 - Austria (2023). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu

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