Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Heiko Maas had already announced on February 11, 2014, during the 'Safer Internet Day 2014' conference, that consumer protection associations should be empowered to issue warnings for data protection violations by companies. We had already reported on this
The Federal Cabinet has now adopted the draft of a Law to Improve the Civil Enforcement of Consumer Protection Regulations in Data Protection Law .
Consumer associations will thus be able to take action against companies by means of injunctive relief if they violate data protection law in areas relevant to consumers.
The draft law empowers eligible entities to take action with claims for injunctive relief against the unlawful collection, processing, and use of consumer data by businesses, if businesses unlawfully collect, process, or use consumer data for purposes of advertising, market and opinion research, operating a credit agency, creating personality and usage profiles, address trading, other data trading, or comparable commercial purposes.
Companies and businesses must therefore immediately ensure that data protection regulations are strictly adhered to and observed within their own operations. Otherwise, in addition to the measures already available to state supervisory authorities (including fines of up to €300,000.00), costly warning letters will be a future risk.
As we frequently observe with clients that data protection law in companies often receives only 'incidental' attention, companies should immediately review their data protection concept and its implementation within their own organization with their data protection officers.
For further questions on this topic, our attorneys are available to assist you.
Source: Press release of the Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection
Goldberg Attorneys 2015
Attorney Michael Ullrich, LL.M. (Information Law)
Specialist Attorney for Information Technology Law
Email: info@goldberg.de
