Datenschutz – auch beim Einkauf

ECJ, judgment of 25 January 2024, Case. C-687/21

The purchaser of a television whose customer data is inadvertently disclosed to a customer waiting in the checkout queue is entitled to compensation - but not without limits.

What the judges say

The European Court of Justice had to answer the question posed by the Hagen Local Court as to the criteria according to which the customer of a department store can claim compensation for damages whose purchase and credit agreement fell into the hands of a customer who was pushing ahead. With its answers, the ECJ interpreted the relevant standards of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Fortunately, the answers sounded familiar to German lawyers. A claim for damages under the GDPR also presupposes that the affected party has actually suffered damage (even if it is immaterial, such as damage to reputation) and that the damages are only intended to compensate for the actual damage and not to have a punitive function (as punitive damage has in US law). Now the local court has to decide. It looks bad for the television buyer. Entrepreneurs can breathe a sigh of relief. The risk of fines under the GDPR may be difficult to predict, but the claim for damages follows familiar paths.