US companies are actually notorious for deliberately spying on their own employees. However, these practices seem to have now also been adopted by German companies. Because of this, the State Commissioner for Data Protection (LfD) in Lower Saxony, Barbara Thiel, now has a fine of 10, 4 million euros imposed on notebooksbilliger.de AG. The reason for the penalty is the systematic monitoring of the common areas of employees and their workplaces. But also sales rooms or the own warehouse were equipped with video cameras.

Thiel even spoke of a serious video surveillance case. Companies must understand that with such intensive monitoring they are massively violating the rights of their employees. In addition, according to Thiel’s statements, the allegedly deterrent effect of video surveillance, which is repeatedly put forward, does not justify a permanent and unprovoked interference with the personal rights of employees. Otherwise, this would mean that companies could extend the monitoring limitless.

Customers of notebooksbilliger.de were also affected by the inadmissible video surveillance. The reason for this are cameras that were aimed at the seating in the sales room. According to the LfD Lower Saxony, people who are in areas in which they extensively test the devices offered have high interests worthy of protection. This is especially true for seating areas that are obviously intended to invite you to linger a while.

The 10, 4 million euros are the highest fine to date that the LfD Lower Saxony has imposed under the GDPR. The GDPR enables the supervisory authorities to impose fines of up to 20 million euros or up to 4 % of a company’s total worldwide annual sales. The fine is not yet legally binding. However, notebookbilliger.de has already reacted and has now adapted its video surveillance.