Non-compliant privacy policy? Don’t be left behind.

On Sept 13th a German court ordered a lawyer’s website to be taken offline because its privacy policy was non-compliant.

Summary of the ruling:

  1. The court ordered the company (lawyer’s office) to take its website offline (under the threat of a EUR250,000 penalty) because the site did not have a GDPR-compliant privacy policy.
  2. The complaint was made by a competitor.
  3. The court rules that the lack of appropriate privacy measures is anti-competitive i.e. unfair competition compared to others who do follow the rules.
  4. The complaint was brought to court and not through the softer GDPR regulator route.
  5. The complaint was handled on a unilateral request in summary proceedings, so without extensive investigation, etc.

This is an important precedent confirming a trend

  1. Flagrant non-compliance, e.g. no or defective privacy statement, can have a serious business impact.
  2. In the event of non-compliance, a competitor may rely on unfair competition to take legal action.
  3. Compliance with the basic GDPR regulations is becoming urgent.

If you want to test whether you run the risk of having to go offline because your GDPR privacy policy is not good enough, you can check it for free via https://gdprwise.eu/policy-checker/.

Stay updated with new GDPR related changes and requirements. Free GDPR templates and GDPR Privacy Policy Generator are at your disposal.

Here is the link to the German court ruling https://www.gesetze-bayern.de/Content/Document/Y-300-Z-BECKRS-B-2018-N-22735?hl=true

Don’t be left behind. We have done the hard work for you and created a filled in GDPR dossier based on the industry sector you operate in. Follow this link to Get your GDPR in order now!