Municipality of Bremen – Court Ruling (Germany, 2025)
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.
The Administrative Court of Bremen ruled that the municipality's automated waste fee notice did not violate data protection rules. This matters because it clarifies how automated decisions can be made without breaching GDPR. Local governments and businesses should understand the limits of automated processing.
What happened
The municipality of Bremen issued a waste fee notice that was challenged for being fully automated.
Who was affected
A resident who received the waste fee notice was affected by the municipality's decision.
What the authority found
The court held that the fee notice did not constitute an automated decision under GDPR Article 22, as it was based on a fixed fee schedule.
Why this matters
This ruling sets a precedent for how automated decisions are interpreted in public administration. Organizations should ensure their automated processes comply with data protection standards.
GDPR Articles Cited
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National Law Articles
The municipality of Bremen (controller) operates of a public waste disposal system. By its decision in January 2022 , the controller issued a waste fee notice for the year 2022 in the total amount of €176,82 against the data subject with regard to his property. In February 2022, the data subject filed an objection against this fee notice before an appeal authority of the controller, arguing that the fee notice had been issued fully automatically, in violation of Article 22 GDPR, and was therefore unlawful. He claimed that his personal data had been processed fully automatically and unlawfully, resulting in an individual administrative decision detrimental legal effects. He also objected to the fully automated processing of his personal data. The controller rejected the data subject's objection as unfounded, in amendment to the fee notice produced by a clerk, dated 8 March 2023. According to the controller, Article 22 GDPR did not apply in the present case, as there was no automated decision in the individual case within the meaning of the provision. The mere program-supported calculation of fees according to a fixed fee schedule does not constitute a decision within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR. In any case, a possible breach of a legal reservation was cured by the notice amending the fee notice. In April 2025, the data subject filed an action before the court (Administrative Court of the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen-VG Bremen) where he challenged the fee notice (consisting of the original fee notice as amended by the later notice produced by the clerk). He persisted that his personal data had been improperly subjected to illegal automated processing, without the involvement of a human being, by the controller, which led to a decision with a direct legal effect on him. The data subject requested that the fee notice was set aside due to a violation of Article 22 GDPR. First, the court found that the initial decision of the controller of January 2022, regardin
Outcome
Court Ruling
A ruling by a national court on a data-protection matter.
Related Cases (0)
No other cases found for Municipality of Bremen in DE
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Municipality of Bremen - Germany (2025). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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