Germany: Issued Berlin Data Protection Commissioner fine against Deutsche Wohnen for alleged violation of EU GDPR

On 30 October 2019, the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and the Freedom of Information (Di) issued a fine of EUR 14.5 million on real estate company Deutsche Wohnen for alleged violations of Articles 5 and 25 of EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on principles relating to the processing of personal data and data protection by design and default. The fine was imposed after two inspections by Di, in 2019 and 2017, respectively, where Di found that although the company took preliminary steps to remedy data storage issues found in 2017 related to the impossibility of removing archived personal data, it had still not cleaned up its database nor present strong reasons for prolonged storage personal data of tenants. There were also smaller fines imposed for the storage of personal data of tenants in 15 specific individual cases. Deutsche Wohnen has the right to appeal the fine.