HDPA (Greece) - 25/2023
| HDPA - 1510/12-06-2023 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Authority: | HDPA (Greece) |
| Jurisdiction: | Greece |
| Relevant Law: | Article 5(1) GDPR Article 15 GDPR Article 25(1) GDPR |
| Type: | Complaint |
| Outcome: | Upheld |
| Started: | 13.12.2022 |
| Decided: | 12.06.2023 |
| Published: | 27.07.2023 |
| Fine: | 100.000 EUR |
| Parties: | n/a |
| National Case Number/Name: | 1510/12-06-2023 |
| European Case Law Identifier: | n/a |
| Appeal: | n/a |
| Original Language(s): | Greek |
| Original Source: | HDPA (in EL) |
| Initial Contributor: | ANASTASIA TSERMENIDOU |
The Greek DPA issued a fine of 100 000 EUR to a bank for unlawful processing of personal data and breach of right of access.
English Summary
Facts
Piraeus Bank S.A., the controller, sent the data subject a letter informing them that it had entrusted the management of loans and credits related claims to a credit management company (AFS), its wholly owned subsidiary. The letter also informed that the data subject was a party to a claim and that their personal data had been with AFS, which was managing the claim.
The data subject submitted an access request to the controller under Article 15 GDPR, asking for more detailed information such as the date, the means and the purpose of the transmission of their personal data as well as the loan contract number and any other data shared with AFS.
The controller responded that the letter was sent to the data subject by mistake and asked them to disregard it as their personal data had not been shared and remained in its servers.
Dissatisfied with the response, the data subject filed a complaint with the Hellenic DPA, claiming that the controller did not provide sufficient information. Moreover, they argued that they did not have any loan or credit related claim with the controller and, therefore, there was no legal basis for sharing their data with AFS.
The DPA opened an investigation on the controller.
In the procedure, the controller stated that it had an agreement with AFS for the management of its 'portfolio' (receivables from loan granting and/or customers' debts that had became overdue, terminated or settled). The controller admitted that, due to a technical problem with its systems, letters were mistakenly sent to customers that had zero balance and were not included in the portfolio.
Holding
After the investigation, the Hellenic DPA could not determine if the data subject's data had been transferred to AFS, but reserved itself the right to further investigate the matter.
On the other hand, the DPA found that personal data from the data subject, as well as from a large number of the controller's customers who were involved in loans with zero rest, were mistakenly included in a list of recipients of personalized letters. According to the DPA, the controller had no legal basis for this personal data processing and, therefore, violated Articles 5(1)(a) and 6 GDPR.
Furthermore, the DPA held that the controller did not implemement sufficient organizational and technical measures to ensure that the processing of personal data meets the legal requirements, in breach of Article 25(1) GDPR.
Finally, the DPA stated that the response to the access request was incomplete as the controller merely informed the data subject that their data remained in its servers, but did not clarified about further processing operations that were being carried out. Thus, it concluded that the controller also violated Article 15(1) GDPR.
For the above reasons, the DPA issued a fine of €100,000 on the controller.
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English Machine Translation of the Decision
The decision below is a machine translation of the Greek original. Please refer to the Greek original for more details.
Summary The Authority found that the complained bank processed the personal data of the complainant and a large number of its customers in violation of the principle of legality and, moreover, without having taken appropriate and effective technical and organizational measures so that only the data that they are necessary to serve a specific purpose, thus violating the principles of legality of processing and data protection by design. With the information available to date, there has been no transmission of the data of the above persons to the Loan and Credit Receivables Management Company. The Authority expressly reserves the right to exercise its powers in relation to this particular issue in the future, given that the overall audit is ongoing and not yet complete. Finally, the Authority established the non-satisfaction of the complainant's right of access.
