Pre-checked boxes aren’t valid for consent nor cookies under EU data protection law

Update: In October 2019, the European Court of Justice held that in order to store cookies on user devices, the users must actively consent and that pre-checked checkbox that users must actively deselect is not a valid form of consent. The European Court of Justice also stated that all types of cookies require active consent, […]

Tags: ,

German Antitrust ordered Facebook to stop “combining” data of German users without voluntary consent

  On February 7, 2019, the Bundeskartellamt, the German antitrust authority, prohibited Facebook from combining data concerning German Facebook users gathered also from third party websites when the user didn’t give voluntary consent to this practice. The decision concerns all private users of Facebook based in Germany. According to the Bundeskartellamt’s decision, until now, individuals […]

Tags: ,

Advocate General opined that embedding a Facebook “Like” button on websites could determine a situation of joint control

On December 19, 2018, Advocate General Bobek, published his opinion in case C-40/17, deeming that anyone who enters the Facebook “Like” button on his website can be considered a joint controller. In this case, a German fashion online retailer embedded a Facebook’s ‘Like’ button in its website. As a result, when users landed on the […]

Tags: ,

Advocate general suggest to limit global de-listing approach related to right to be forgotten

On January 10, 2018, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) issued his opinion in the case of Google v. CNIL (Case C-507/17). In the opinion, the Advocate General stresses that the right to be forgotten must be balanced against other fundamental rights, such as the legitimate public […]

Tags: ,

German court decides what can be the first decision on non-material damages under the GDPR

In November 2018, a German local court, the Amtsgericht Diez, decided on a claim for immaterial damages under Art. 82.1, GDPR.  According to this source, on May 25, 2018, Plaintiff received an e-mail in which Plaintiff’s consent to receive a newsletter was requested. An email of this sort is considered spam under German law and […]

Tags: ,

The German High Court asks the ECJ to issue preliminary ruling on validity of pre-checked checkboxes to gather consent for processing

On September 3, 2018, the Bundesgerichtshof, the German Federal Court of Justice deferred a preliminary ruling to the Court of justice of the European Union (CJEU) to decide whether, under EU data protection laws, a pre-checked checkbox – which the user must unselect to refuse his consent – is a valid consent to store information, […]

Tags: ,

Facebook profile can be accessed by heirs, German federal court says

On July 12, 2018, the German federal court (Bundesgerichtshof, BGH) overturned the judgment of the Berlin’s highest state court (Kammergerichts), which had denied the parents’ access to their daughter’s Facebook account. The case involved a mother trying to access the deceased 15-year-old daughter’s Facebook account in order to understand the cause of death. With its […]

Tags: ,

ECJ’s preliminary ruling on case of German DPA against Facebook

  On June 5, 2018, the European Court of Justice (CJEU), issued its preliminary ruling in C‑210/16, opining on the definition of data controller, applicable national law, and jurisdiction under EU data protection law according to Directive 95/46/EC. According to the CJEU’s judgement, EU companies that have been advertising through Facebook can be considered data […]

Tags: ,

Processing of personal data carried out on company e-mail accounts shall be necessary and proportional

On February 1, 2018, the Garante per la Protezione dei Dati Personali, the Italian Data Protection Authority (DPA), prohibited an Italian company to store employees’ corporate emails for an indefinite period. This would violate the principles of lawfulness, necessity, and proportionality established by the Privacy Code. The DPA explained that the company – instead of implementing […]

Tags: ,

1 2 3 4 10