Δήμος Πατρέων (Municipality of Patra) – €5,000 Fine (Greece, 2025)

The controller is the Municipality of Patras, a town in Greece, which operated the Municipality's Solidarity Tutoring Center (Λαϊκό Φροντιστήριο Αλληλεγγύης του Δήμου). The data subject is a member of the School Committee of the Primary Education Schools of the Municipality of Patras. The controller published on its official website a decision by the School Committee regarding the approval of an expenditure of €800 for cleaning and disinfection supplies. The decision was taken by majority vote, as objections were raised by the data subject, not only for the justification of this financial support, but for the general necessity and legality of the operation of the Municipality's Solidarity Tutoring Center. The publication included the data subject's name, surname, place of work, place of employment, his political beliefs and as well as an extract of the email he had sent to the other 14 members of the Primary Education Committee of the Municipality. On 20 February 2023, the data subject filed a complaint before the Hellenic DPA (Αρχή Προστασίας Δεδομένων Προσωπικού Χαρακτήρα-HDPA) claiming that the the controller processed his personal data unlawfully. The controller held that the publication was aimed to inform citizens about the Municipality's Solidarity Tutoring Center's operations. It argued that the publication of the data subject's personal data served for journalistic purposes and transparency of public administration. The controller maintained that the public's right to information on the program outweighed the data subject’s right to privacy, and the publication was essential for informing citizens about the committee's decision making. Plus, the personal data was already made public by the data subject on his social media platforms. After the complaint was filed, the controller removed the publication containing the data subject's data from its website, though it had already been published on other platforms. The DPA made a balancing of the right to freedom of expression and information and the right to personal data protection by considering, amongst others, Article 85 GDPR, Recital 153 GDPR, and the principle of proportionality enshrined in the Greek constitution in Article 25(1). The DPA held that the assessment of whether the processing of personal data for journalistic purposes is lawful must be based on; first, whether the processing of personal data served the interest of informing public opinion and whether that interest outweighs the right to privacy in the particular case and, second, whether the infringement in question was necessary, in the context of the principle of proportionality, for the exercise of the right to privacy. The DPA decided that even though the data subject's political views were already made public, the publication of his information in a highly contentious political context was deemed inappropriate. The publication of the data subject’s personal data on the controller’s website exceeded what was necessary for informing the public and violated the data subject’s privacy rights, particularly by including irrelevant information such as the data subject’s professional identity and the contents of their email. The DPA held that the intended purpose of informing the public could have been achieved through less intrusive means and that the controller violated the principle of data minimization. For these reasons, the DPA imposed a fine of €5,000 on the controller, for the violation of Article 5(1)(c) GDPR.