Court case III OSK 4984/21 – Court Ruling (Poland, 2024)

Court Ruling
DPA WSAWarsaw16 October 2024Poland
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 Polish court ruled that a family member sharing a judgment on Facebook violated privacy rules. The court decided that sharing personal data with many people online is not just a private matter. This ruling clarifies that even personal activities can fall under data protection laws when shared publicly.

What happened

A family member published a court judgment about an individual on Facebook, making it accessible to many users.

Who was affected

The individual whose judgment was shared and the family member who posted it on social media.

What the authority found

The court found that the sharing of the judgment on Facebook was not purely personal and thus fell under GDPR's scope.

Why this matters

This case sets a precedent that sharing personal information online can trigger data protection laws. Website operators should be aware that even seemingly private actions can have legal implications when shared publicly.

GDPR Articles Cited

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Art. 2(2)(c) GDPR

Original data from scraper before AI verification against source document.

Decision AuthorityNSA (Poland)
Reviewed AuthorityWSA Warsaw (Poland)
Source verified 19 March 2026
verified correct
Full Legal Summary
Detailed

A court rendered a judgment in a case referring to a data subject. An individual, being a member of data subject’s family, published the judgement via their Facebook account and by placing its copy behind their car’s pane. The judgment was published in that way for 11 days. The data subject filed a complaint with the Polish DPA (UODO). The DPA dismissed the complaint as it considered that the personal data were published under Article 2(2)(c) GDPR, i.e. for purely personal activity. Additionally, the individual and the data subject were related. Thus, according to the DPA, the processing at stake fell outside GDPR’s scope of application. The data subject brought an appeal with the Voivodeship Administrative Court of Warsaw (Wojewódzki Sąd Administracyjny w Warszawie). The court repealed the DPA’s decision. By referring to case C-101/01 and C-212/13, the court emphasised the exemption of purely private activity didn’t cover the processing which led to disclosing the data to unlimited number of people. Because the individual shared the data via Facebook, making it available to unlimited number of its users, Article 2(2)(c) GDPR didn’t apply. The DPA lodged a cassation appeal before the Supreme Administrative Court (Naczelny Sąd Administracyjny – NSA). The Supreme Administrative Court dismissed the cassation appeal. The court explained that the notion of purely personal activity was inherently limited. In particular, when the personal data were made accessible to an unrestricted number of people, for instance, social media users, it excluded the application of Article 2(2)(c) GDPR. The court based it reasoning on Recital 18 GDPR, case C-212/13 and WP29 [https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/documentation/opinion-recommendation/files/2009/wp163_en.pdf Opinion 5/2009]. In the case at stake, the individual published the judgement referring to the data subject via Facebook. The post shared in such a way that every Facebook user could has accessed it. Hence, the indiv

Outcome

Court Ruling

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

Related Cases (0)

No other cases found for Court case III OSK 4984/21 in PL

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

Details

Ruling Date

16 October 2024

Authority

DPA WSAWarsaw

About this data

Data: GDPRhub (noyb.eu)
Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
AI-verified and classified

Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case III OSK 4984/21 - Poland (2024). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu

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