Germany: Volkswagen fined for data protection violations during assisted driving testing

On 26 July 2022, the State Commissioner for Data Protection (LfD) of Lower Saxony announced that it has concluded its investigation into Volkswagen and issued a fine of EUR 1.1 million for General Data Protection Regulation violations. The violations were committed during test drives involving assisted driving systems. Firstly, the LfD noted that the company used cameras during the test drives without notifying other participants in traffic and failed to disclose that the participants were being recorded and the purposes for which the recordings would be used. Further, the LfD stated that Volkswagendind hasn’t signed a processing contract with the contractors hired to carry out the tests and failed to conduct an impact assessment.