WSA Warsaw (Poland) - II SA/Wa 2227/19
| WSA Warsaw (Poland) - II SA/Wa 2227/19 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court: | WSA Warsaw (Poland) (Poland) |
| Jurisdiction: | Poland |
| Relevant Law: | Article 2(1) GDPR Article 4(6) GDPR |
| Decided: | 15.09.2020 |
| Published: | |
| Parties: | |
| National Case Number/Name: | II SA/Wa 2227/19 |
| European Case Law Identifier: | |
| Appeal from: | President of the Personal Data Protection Office |
| Appeal to: | Unknown |
| Original Language(s): | Polish |
| Original Source: | Centralna Baza Orzeczeń Sądów Administracyjnych (in Polish) |
| Initial Contributor: | n/a |
The Provincial Administrative Court for Warsaw decided that the provision of personal data in the form of mentioning the name and surname and public disclosure of the fact of service of a notice of termination of an employment contract and leaving the document in a way that makes it possible for third parties to become acquainted with its content is not related to the process of mechanical data processing or the use of data which may constitute a separate database, as a set of information ordered according to certain criteria on the day of the event, and thus is not subject to GDPR, in accordance with Article 2 (1) of GDPR.
English Summary
Facts
The data subject's complaint concerned irregularities in the process of processing of his personal data by the company. They consisted in making his personal data available to unauthorised persons. It was alleged that the company's employees - in the presence of third parties located in the MP's office (public place) - read, using the applicant's personal data, the content of the statement on termination of the employment contract. The applicant indicated that - after refusing to accept the termination - representatives of the company left an unsecured letter containing the termination in the presence of persons in the MP's office; therefore, the applicant requested that all actions be taken to rectify the violations indicated. President of the Personal Data Protection Office has decided that the provision of personal data to the applicant in the above mentioned way was done in violation of the provisions of personal data protection Article 5 (1) (c) and (f) of the GDPR. Both parties filed a complaint against the President of the Personal Data Protection Office decision with the Provincial Administrative Court for Warsaw.
Dispute
Holding
The Provincial Administrative Court for Warsaw revoked the decision of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office. In its reasoning, the Court states that Article 2 (1) of the GDPR shall apply only "to the processing of personal data wholly or partly by automatic means and to the processing, other than by automatic means, of personal data which form part of a filing system or are intended to form part of a filing system". The Court stressed that under Article 4(6) of the GDPR, a data filing system is a structured set of personal data accessible according to specific criteria, whether that set is centralised, decentralised or dispersed on a functional or geographical basis. Thus, the court did not consider the name and surname and information contained in the notice of termination of the employment contract as a filing system within the meaning of the GDPR. The court therefore found that the provisions of the GDPR did not apply in the factual situation examined by it. When reconsidering the case, the administrative authority will take into account the legal assessment formulated in the justification of the Provincial Administrative Court for Warsaw.
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English Machine Translation of the Decision
The decision below is a machine translation of the Polish original. Please refer to the Polish original for more details.
