BlnBDI (Berlin) - C-807/21 - Deutsche Wohnen

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BlnBDI - C-807/21 - Deutsche Wohnen
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Authority: BlnBDI (Berlin)
Jurisdiction: Germany
Relevant Law: Article 83 GDPR
§ 30 OWiG
Type: Other
Outcome: n/a
Started: 21.12.2021
Decided:
Published: 16.01.2023
Fine: 14385000 EUR
Parties: Deutsche Wohnen SE
Staatsanwaltschaft Berlin
National Case Number/Name: C-807/21 - Deutsche Wohnen
European Case Law Identifier: n/a
Appeal: Appealed - Confirmed
LG Berlin (Germany)
Original Language(s): English
Original Source: Curia (in EN)
Initial Contributor: Norman Aasma

Request for preliminary ruling on interpretation of Article 83 GDPR of whether fining an undertaking would require there to be a natural person who had, in his or her capacity as a representative of the undertaking committed the offense

English Summary

Facts

A request for a preliminary ruling lodged by Kammergericht in relation to interpretation of Article 83 GDPR of whether fining an undertaking would require there to be a natural person who had, in his or her capacity as a representative of the undertaking committed the offense or shall this requirement be disregarded under primacy of EU law.

The case itself concerns a publicly listed real estate enterprise (the processor), which holds participating interests in around 163 000 housing units and 3 000 commercial units and its group companies as part of their professional activities are handling the personal data related to the tenants of their housing and commercial units. The data handled includes things like proof of identity, data on health and social insurance, tax and also information regarding tenancies, which has been held earlier.

On its own initiative, the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection (the DPA) started an investigation on-the-spot on the companies, which were part of the group.

The processor explained the DPA that the checked archove had been decommissioned and the stored data had been transferred immediately to the new system.

Holding

The DPA found that the group companies were storing personal data of tenants in the electronic archive system, but it was not possible to have a clear overview of whether such storage was even necessary and the existing system did not enable erasure of the data if that was no longer necessary.

The DPA required the real estate enterprise to delete all the documents from its electronic archive. 3 years later in 2020, the DPA carried out another, but instead at the corporate headquarters of the group. The DPA made adopted administrative penalty order and explained that the enterprise concerned had not taken any of the necessary measures, which they were required to in order to enable the erasure of personal data of the tenants, which was not necessary any more at that moment.

Furthermore, the DPA also held that the company still continued storing data of some of the tenants even though that particular data was not needed.

The DPA found there to be infringement of Articles 25(1), 5(1)(a), (c) and (e) GDPR and imposed a fine of EUR 14 385 000, as well as 15 further pecuniary penalties each ranging from EUR 3 000 to EUR 17 000 for additionally infringements of Article 6(1) of the GDPR.

The case ended up at Landgericht Berlin (Regional Court, Berlin), which discontinued the proceedings. This decision was appealed by the Berlin's Public Porsecutor's Office which left Kammergericht to make final decision on the matter.

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English Machine Translation of the Decision

The decision below is a machine translation of the English original. Please refer to the English original for more details.

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Deutsche WohnenCase C-807/21
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