In 2020, German data protection authorities imposed more fines for GDPR violations than ever before. By far the highest penalty came from H&M – over 35 million euros.

The Swedish fashion retailer H&M is said to have researched the private living conditions of hundreds of employees at its Nuremberg location. The fine that was then imposed in autumn for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) amounted to 35.3 million euros. There had never been such a high penalty in Germany before. In Europe, only Google – 50 million euros fine in France – had to accept a higher fine. Overall, more fines were imposed in Germany for GDPR violations in 2020 than ever before in a year.

H&M drew a record fine in 2020

According to a survey by the Handelsblatt among the data protection officers of the federal and state levels the amount of the fines to around 48 million euros. The record value is of course mainly based on the high H&M fine. The second highest fine was imposed on the electronics retailer Notebooksbilliger.de. This is said to have illegally monitored employees by video. The AOK in Baden-Württemberg was in third place with 1.2 million euros. The health insurance company is said to have used data for advertising purposes without consent.

The number of fines is 187 in 2019 increased to 301, which corresponds to an increase of almost 60 percent. However, these are mainly sanctions in the three to five-digit range against mostly small and medium-sized companies, clubs or self-employed people. The GDPR violations range – as it has been since the GDPR came into force in 2018 – “from improper data disposal and video surveillance to inadequate technical and organizational measures,” as Baden-Württemberg’s data protection officer Stefan Brink told Handelsblatt. The number of data breaches is said to have risen to over 26,000 in 2020.

German economy complains about GDPR

Meanwhile, the German economy complains that the GDPR “continues to cause confusion and uncertainty”, as it was called by the Federal Association of German Employers’ Associations (BDA). Unclear regulations and overregulation would severely impair companies in their freedom of action, the BDA told Handelsblatt. One now needs “uniform guidelines for action and no overloading with new, complex regulations”.

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