Furniture company in Austria fined €1.5 million – company appeals
Swedish furniture specialist IKEA (www.ikea.at) has been fined €1.5 million in Austria.
The reason: the company may have unintentionally filmed PIN entries at the payment terminals in its branch at Vienna’s Westbahnhof station using surveillance cameras. The company is not willing to accept this and is appealing against the ruling.
‘Grossly negligent video surveillance’
The Austrian Data Protection Authority (https://dsb.gv.at) took action against the furniture store in 2022 following an anonymous complaint, accusing it of ‘grossly negligent unlawful video surveillance’. IKEA defends itself with the argument that the customers concerned were not recognisable on the recordings, which prevents PIN misuse.
According to the authority, a total of 30 legal violations were found on nine cameras – both inside and outside the store. Following a complaint from IKEA, the case ultimately came before the Federal Administrative Court (https://www.bvwg.gv.at), which has now confirmed 28 of the 30 violations in court proceedings. Six cameras had recorded certain areas without good reason, in violation of the GDPR.
