- Enforcing jurisdiction
- Austria · Geography does not establish applicable law.
- Confirmed applicable legislation
- Privacy topics
Court case W256 2279237-1/6E – Court Ruling (Austria, 2025)
Privacy enforcement record
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An Austrian court ruled that a person's complaint about not receiving complete information about their data access was dismissed because the person had passed away. The court decided that data protection rights end with a person's death and cannot be transferred to others. This ruling highlights the importance of personal status in data protection cases.
What happened
The court annulled a decision requiring a company to provide data access information after the data subject died.
Who was affected
The individual who filed the complaint about their data access rights.
What the authority found
The court ruled that the data subject lost their rights upon death, meaning the company was not required to provide the requested information.
Why this matters
This case shows that data protection rights are personal and do not extend beyond a person's life. Website operators should be aware that data access requests may become void if the requester passes away.
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Source checks
Linked-source text retrieved.
Automated check recorded — 20 March 2026.
Processing notes: articles corrected, national law identified, authority corrected.
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The data subject filed a complaint with the Austrian DPA on March 16, 2022. alleging that the controller violated his right to access under Article 15 GDPR by providing incomplete details about the specific recipients of their data or the reason why the disclosure of the specific recipients was not possible pursuant to Article 15(1)(c) GDPR., and by failing to provide a copy of the data or offering inadequate justification as to why issuing a copy was not possible under Article 15(3) GDPR. The authority upheld the complaint and ordered the controller to provide the requested information within four weeks or to adequately justify why this could not be done. The controller requested a suspension of the proceedings pending the outcome of another decision, but this request was rejected. The controller appealed the DPA’s decision. Meanwhile, the data subject has passed away. The Court upheld the appeal and annulled the contested decision because the data subject, a natural person, lost his party status in the proceedings upon his death. Since data protection rights are highly personal and extinguish upon the death of the data subject, they cannot be transferred to any legal successor, in accordance with the [https://www.ris.bka.gv.at/Dokument.wxe?ResultFunctionToken=ba0008f7-3b36-4f83-83ee-7878707b664e&SkipToDocumentPage=True&Abfrage=Vwgh&Entscheidungsart=Undefined&Sammlungsnummer=&Index=&SucheNachRechtssatz=False&SucheNachText=True&GZ=Ra+2016%2f04%2f0044&VonDatum=&BisDatum=29.09.2025&Norm=&ImRisSeitVonDatum=&ImRisSeitBisDatum=&ImRisSeit=Undefined&ResultPageSize=100&Suchworte=&Dokumentnummer=JWT_2016040044_20160418L00 case law of the VwGH]. The extent of a person’s participation in an administrative procedure depends not only on their status as a party but also on their party capacity, that is, their ability to hold procedural rights and obligations. If the party who initiated the proceedings before the administrative authority dies, the contested decision must be te
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 2279237-1/6E in AT
This is the only recorded case for this entity in this jurisdiction.
Details
Ruling Date
6 August 2025
Authority
Datenschutzbehörde
About this data
Cite as: Cookie Fines. Court case W256 2279237-1/6E - Austria (2025). Retrieved from cookiefines.eu
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