Defendant – Court Ruling (Denmark, 2024)

Court Ruling
DPA RetteniSvendborg12 November 2024Denmark
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 Danish court found that Defendant failed to ensure that a client could access their data backups after a ransomware attack. This matters because it highlights the importance of companies taking responsibility for data security and backup procedures. Businesses need to ensure they have proper access to their data in case of emergencies.

What happened

Defendant did not provide a necessary access key for data backups, leading to data loss during a ransomware attack.

Who was affected

The client company that suffered a ransomware attack and lost access to their personal data.

What the authority found

The court ruled that Defendant was negligent in their obligations to ensure data access and availability, violating GDPR's security requirements.

Why this matters

This ruling emphasizes that companies must take data security seriously and ensure clients have the means to access their backups. It serves as a reminder for all businesses to review their data protection practices.

GDPR Articles Cited

AI-verified

Art. 32(1) GDPR
Art. 83(2) GDPR
Art. 83(4)(a) GDPR
Art. 83(9) GDPR
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Art. 32(1) GDPR
Art. 83(2) GDPR
Art. 83(4)(a) GDPR
Art. 83(9) GDPR

Original data from scraper before AI verification against source document.

National Law Articles

AI-identified

Databeskyttelsesloven
Decision AuthorityRetten i Svendborg
Source verified 20 March 2026
articles corrected
amount discrepancy
authority corrected
Full Legal Summary
Detailed

Data Controller (B) had entered into contract with defendant company to ensure back-up of personal data in case of physical or technical incidents, and to establish regular testing, assessment and evaluation of the efficiency of the technical and organisational measures. Witness 2 explains, and this is uncontested, that the Data Controller was subject to a ransomware attack on 12ᵗʰ August 2020. The Data Controller’s systems were locked and they were unable to restore using back-ups. t is found in the terms of service that the defendant has assumed obligations to ensure access and availability of processed data for the Data Controller. Witness 1 has explained that they, as Executive Officer in the Data Controlling company, were unaware that they ought be in possession of an access key to the back-up. The witness for Data Controller explains that the defendant company had not established a procedure for testing, assessment and evaluation of the feasibility of using the back-up to restore access to the processed data. Irrespective of * it according to the Witness 1’s statement is found apparent, that the customer themselves create the access-key upon installation * the customer in this process is informed that they themselves are responsible for storing the access-key; which the defendant company is not in possession of * it being stated in the terms of service appendix that the customer them selves are responsible for setting up the system and software and access-key used, and it is apparent that there can be no other outcome The defendant did not take steps to ensure that the Data Controller was in possession of the access key and thus had the ability to restore access and availability of the personal data in the back-up. The defendant is found guilty of being negligent in their obligations stated in the Article 32(1) & Article 83(2), (4)(a), (9). The sanction is set as a monetary penalty of €5 ,360 (DKK 40,000). In setting the sanction the court has takien into

Outcome

Court Ruling

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

Related Cases (0)

No other cases found for Defendant in DK

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

Details

Ruling Date

12 November 2024

Authority

DPA RetteniSvendborg

About this data

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

Cite as: Cookie Fines. Defendant - Denmark (2024). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu

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