Christoph Ritzer (DE)

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European Commission adopts its adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework

By Lara White (UK), Marcus Evans (UK), Susan Ross (US), Jurriaan Jansen, Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Nadège Martin (FR) on July 11, 2023 Posted in Fintech

On 10 July, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (the DP Framework). It thereby declared that the United States (the US) ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EU to US companies that have self-certified their adherence to the DP Framework Principles. More … Continue reading

Schrems II – Irish DPC finally issues its decision – suspension order, deletion/ repatriation of data and fine

By Lara White (UK), Marcus Evans (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Jurriaan Jansen and Nadège Martin (FR) on May 25, 2023 Posted in General

Introduction: On 22 May, the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (the DPC) published its decision against Meta Platform Ireland Ltd (Meta Ireland) in relation to Facebook’s transfer of user’s personal data to the US (the Decision). In it, the DPC ordered Meta Ireland to suspend Facebook’s future transfers of personal data to the U.S. within five … Continue reading

EDPB publishes guidance on calculating GDPR fines

By Polina Maloshchinskaia, Steven Hadwin (UK), Marcus Evans (UK) and Christoph Ritzer (DE) on June 9, 2022 Posted in General

On 12 May 2022 EDPB adopted Guidelines on the calculation of administrative fines (the Guidelines). The Guidelines supplement the Article 29 Working Party’s Guidelines on the application and setting of administrative fines (WP253) adopted in October 2017 and recommends that the two are read together. Whereas the previous guidance set out general principles for when … Continue reading

European rulings on the use of Google Analytics and how it may affect your business

By Steve Roosa (US), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Nadège Martin (FR), Jurriaan Jansen, Daniel Rosenzweig (US), Naomi Schuitema, Natalia Filkina (DE) and Barbara Ghebali (FR) on February 14, 2022 Posted in Cybersecurity, NT Analyzer Blog Series, Privacy law

Recent decisions out of the EU will impact the use of Google Analytics and similar non-European analytics services when targeting EU individuals, with the potential to put many organizations at risk of receiving GDPR fines. At issue was the transfer of personal data from the EU to the US through the use of Google Analytics. … Continue reading

Subject Access Request: Germany’s highest court widens the scope of data subject access requests in Germany

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on July 28, 2021 Posted in General, Regulatory response

Germany’s highest civil court, the Federal Court Of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof, the FCJ), has just published a decision specifying the scope of data subject access requests (DSARs). The FCJ held that Article 15 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has a broader scope than previously understood in Germany. Pursuant to the court’s decision, Article 15 … Continue reading

The EDPB publishes its finalised version of the Recommendations on supplementary measures

By Marcus Evans (UK), Lara White (UK) and Christoph Ritzer (DE) on June 22, 2021 Posted in Data Transfer, Regulatory response

On 21 June 2021, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published its finalised version of the Recommendations on supplementary measures (the Recommendations) to assist companies comply with the Schrems II judgement. This comes just a couple of weeks after the European Commission (the Commission) published new, revised Standard Contractual Clauses (New SCCs) (read our blog … Continue reading

A deeper dive into the new Standard Contractual Clauses

By Janine Regan (UK), Marcus Evans (UK), Lara White (UK) and Christoph Ritzer (DE) on June 7, 2021 Posted in Data Transfer, Regulatory response

On Friday 4 June, the European Commission published the finalised version of the new Standard Contractual Clauses for transferring personal data from the EU to third countries (the New SCCs). Privacy professionals have been waiting for the New SCCs for several years and have been particularly interested to know if the New SCCs will help … Continue reading

European Commission publishes much anticipated finalised Standard Contractual Clauses

By Marcus Evans (UK), Lara White (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Janine Regan (UK) on June 4, 2021 Posted in Data Transfer, Regulatory response

The European Commission has today published the finalised version of the new Standard Contractual Clauses (the new SCCs). The purpose of the new SCCs are to help companies legalise transfers of personal data from outside of the EEA. They will also be a lawful mechanism for UK companies to use too. The new SCCs were … Continue reading

Final Revised SCCs expected as early as next week with Final Revised EDPB Recommendations to follow after 15 June

By Marcus Evans (UK) and Christoph Ritzer (DE) on May 21, 2021 Posted in Data Transfer

It was reported yesterday that publication of revised final EU Standard Contractual Clauses may be as soon as next week and that revised final EDPB Recommendations possibly following the EDPB’s next plenary meeting on 15 June. This follows comments made by Ralf Sauer, EU Commission Deputy Head for International Data Flows, and Alexander Filip, Head … Continue reading

DSAR – No copy of work emails required in Germany

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on April 30, 2021 Posted in Compliance and risk management

German Federal Labour Court dismissed employee’s claim On 27 April 2021, the German Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, the Federal Court) held that employees cannot request their employer to provide them with copies of all (i) the employee’s entire email correspondence; and (ii) any emails mentioning the employee by name. The Federal Court said that under … Continue reading

Deutsche Wohnen fine now declared invalid by a German court

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on February 25, 2021 Posted in Data breach, Enforcement

There has been a big bang in the data protection world in Berlin as the first and most spectacular GDPR fine in Germany has just been declared invalid. The Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection for Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für den Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, “Berlin DPA”) issued a EUR 14.5 million fine against a … Continue reading

New German fine: EUR 10.4 million for unlawful CCTV

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on January 13, 2021 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Data breach

A German state data protection authority has issued a fine of EUR 10.4m against a mid-size online retailer who allegedly violated the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by monitoring their employees using CCTV. The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit) of Lower Saxony (the State Commissioner) … Continue reading

German Court cuts multimillion GDPR fine by 90%

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on November 17, 2020 Posted in Data breach, Enforcement

In December 2019, the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (“Federal DPA”) levied a € 9.55m fine against 1&1 Telecom (“1&1”), a German telecom company. On 11 November 2020, the Regional Court (Landgericht) of Bonn (the “Court”) slashed the fine to just € 900,000, on the basis that it was disproportionate. The … Continue reading

European data export bonanza: revised SCCs and EDPB Schrems II guidance published

By Marcus Evans (UK), Lara White (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Janine Regan (UK) on November 13, 2020 Posted in Data Transfer, Regulatory response

On 12 November, the European Commission published revised Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) and a draft implementing decision. A feedback period on the draft documents will run until 10 December. Therefore, it is not possible to give a precise date for when the draft SCCs will become final but it could be by the end of … Continue reading

Thermal cameras and COVID-19 – The German DPAs have spoken

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on October 9, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management

On September 11, 2020, the German Datenschutzkonferenz (DSK), the joint body of the German data protection authorities, published its position on the use of thermal cameras and electronic temperature checks in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite voicing general criticisms of body temperature checking in the context of COVID-19, the DSK stated that it … Continue reading

Germany: New 35 million fine for breaching employee privacy

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on October 5, 2020 Posted in Data breach

On 1 October 2020, the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit) of Hamburg (the DPA) imposed a fine of EUR 35.3 million under the GDPR against the German subsidiary of the fashion retailer H&M. The German subsidiary operates a central service centre in Nuremberg. The DPA found … Continue reading

Schrems II landmark ruling: our recommendations

By Marcus Evans (UK), Lara White (UK), Shiv Daddar (UK), Janine Regan (UK), David Kessler (US), Susan Ross (US) and Christoph Ritzer (DE) on July 27, 2020 Posted in Cybersecurity, Data Transfer, Vendor management and transactions

On 16 July 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) published its decision in the landmark case Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Ltd, Maximilian Schrems and intervening parties, Case C-311/18 (known as the Schrems II case). While the EU-US Privacy Shield (Privacy Shield) has been completely invalidated, the Standard Contractual Clauses … Continue reading

Schrems II landmark ruling: Privacy Shield is invalid, Standard Contractual Clauses are valid but court puts obligations on parties and authorities

By Marcus Evans (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Janine Regan (UK) on July 16, 2020 Posted in Data breach, Enforcement, General, Regulatory response

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has today published its decision in the landmark case, known as Schrems II. While Privacy Shield has been completely invalidated, the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) remain valid, but the court has emphasised obligations on the parties to the SCCs and Data Protection Authorities which have the … Continue reading

Germany’s Federal Supreme Court provisionally confirms Facebook’s use of personal data is alleged abuse of dominant market position

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Tim Schaper on July 16, 2020 Posted in Cybersecurity

Facebook’s extensive collection of user-related data must be put on hold in Germany for the time being following a decision of Germany’s Federal Supreme Court on June 23, 2020. In summary proceedings, the Federal Supreme Court overturned an earlier order of the Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf that – pending the outcome of an appeal … Continue reading

Irish data protection authority launches new cookie guidance and indicates cookie investigations are on the horizon

By Janine Regan (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Nadège Martin (FR) and Marcus Evans (UK) on April 16, 2020 Posted in Compliance and risk management

Last week, the Irish Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) published its much anticipated guidance note on cookies and similar tracking technologies (the “Guidance”). It also published a report following a “cookie sweep” that took place between August 2019 and December 2019 of 38 data controllers (the “Report”). The cookie sweep requested information from the data controllers … Continue reading

Record Retention is a Key Component of Your Privacy and Cyber Compliance Program

By Marcus Evans (UK), Janine Regan (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Andrea D'Ambra (US) and David Kessler (US) on December 23, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Cybersecurity

This blogpost summarises our recent webinar: “An urgent message from Berlin: The importance of record retention in privacy and cybersecurity”.… Continue reading

Schrems II: AG deems SCCs valid but comes up with difficult new obligations and expresses “doubts” over privacy shield

By Marcus Evans (UK), Christoph Ritzer (DE), Janine Regan (UK) and David Kessler (US) on December 20, 2019 Posted in Compliance and risk management, Enforcement, General

What has happened? Yesterday, the Advocate General (“AG”) concluded that, in his opinion, the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (“SCCs”) are a valid mechanism to transfer personal data outside of the European Economic Area (“EEA”). However, the AG suggested new obligations for those using SCCs. They need to examine the national security laws of the country … Continue reading

First multi-million GDPR fine in Germany: €14.5 million for not having a proper data retention schedule in place

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on November 12, 2019 Posted in Enforcement

On October 30, 2019 the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit – Berlin DPA) issued a €14.5 million fine on a German real estate company, die Deutsche Wohnen SE (Deutsche Wohnen), the highest German GDPR fine to date. The infraction related to the over retention of personal … Continue reading

German Data Protection Authorities publishes a new GDPR model for fines

By Christoph Ritzer (DE) and Natalia Filkina (DE) on October 28, 2019 Posted in Enforcement

The German Datenschutzkonferenz (DSK), the joint body of the German data protection authorities, has just published the model which it intends to use to calculate fines pursuant to Article 83 of the GDPR.… Continue reading