12 February 2025
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austria
The evolution of GDPR case law
After the GDPR became applicable, the number of national data protection proceedings began to rise, leading to an increase in referrals to the ECJ for preliminary rulings. Since 2021, nearly 80 cases related to data protection have been referred to the ECJ. In 2023 and 2024, the ECJ ruled on over 50 of these cases. Additionally, the General Court issued several judgments and Advocate Generals published numerous opinions on data protection.
The ECJ has issued over ten judgments on the right to compensation for non-material damages under Art. 82 of the GDPR. It clarified that a mere infringement of the GDPR is not enough to entitle a data subject to compensation. Such compensation requires (i) the existence of "damage" that has been "suffered", (ii) an infringement of the GDPR, and (iii) a causal link between the damage and the infringement (C-300/21, C-182/22, C-590/22). Additionally, (iv) the controller (or processor) must be subject to fault (C-667/21, C-687/21). For non-material damages, an apology may constitute sufficient compensation (C-507/23).
The ECJ extended the scope of the right of access. By factually repealing the term "categories of recipient" from Art. 15 (1) (c) of the GDPR, it obliged controllers to disclose the identity of all known recipients (C-154/21). Moreover, the ECJ ruled that the establishment of a credit score may constitute "automated individual decision-making", where information on a credit score must be provided pursuant to Art. 15 (1) (h) of the GDPR (C-634/21).
GDPR case law continues to evolve rapidly. Subscribing to Schoenherr's "Datenschutzmonitor" at schoenherr.eu/datenschutzmonitor is a great way to stay up to date (in German).
author: Janós Böszörmenyi
weekly updates
Datenschutz-monitor
This weekly newsletter (in German) provides a brief and up-to-date overview of data protection case law. It covers relevant case law in Austria and at the European level. In addition to brief summaries of individual decisions, the Datenschutzmonitor also shows the development of case law.
János
Böszörményi
Attorney at Law
austria vienna