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On 24 September and 8 October 2020, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the United Kingdom's independent body established to uphold information rights, imposed fines on two companies for sending thousands of nuisance marketing texts and unlawful marketing emails at the height of the current pandemic. In September 2020, Digital Growth Experts Limited (DGEL) was issued with a monetary penalty of GBP 60 000 in relation to a serious contravention of Regulations 22 and 23 of the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 (PECR). The PECR provide for specific...

On 27 July 2020, the German Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Supreme Court – BGH) issued two decisions on the “right to be forgotten”, which gives people the right to have their personal information deleted by data processors such as search engine operators after a certain period of time. However, the right does not apply without restriction, but depends on a series of factors that need to be weighed up. This is demonstrated by both BGH decisions, in which one claim was rejected while the other was submitted to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). The first procedure...

On 9 June 2020, the Gerechtshof Amsterdam (Amsterdam Court of Appeal) issued an important ruling on the use of hidden-camera footage as part of a commercial broadcaster’s investigative programme. The case arose on 9 October 2016, when the Dutch broadcaster SBS6 broadcast an episode for the television series Undercover in the Netherlands, addressing the performance of illegal polygamous wedding ceremonies by imams. The show used hidden cameras attached to witnesses of a ceremony in order to document it. The claimant, the Imam who was secretly filmed for this episode, initiated legal proceedings...

After the Conseil d'Etat (Council of State) issued a series of judgments on 6 December clarifying the implementation of the right to de-referencing (right to be forgotten), in particular where ‘sensitive data’ is concerned, France’s highest administrative court issued a decision on the geographical scope of this right. In the case at hand, Google Inc. had applied for the annulment of the decision of the French data protection authority (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés – CNIL) of 10 March 2016 to fine it EUR 100 000 for refusing,...

On 30 April 2020, the District Court of The Hague (Rechtbank Den Haag) ruled that a US television provider is entitled to the names and addresses of Internet subscribers or users using an IP address from which it was presumed that an unlawful exchange of files containing protected works had taken place. The judgment was made against WorldStream, which is a Dutch-based Internet hosting provider. The case revolved around Dish Network, which is a provider of paid television in the United States, and Internet hosting provider WorldStream. Dish Network has concluded licence agreements with the owners...