Romanian supervisory authority imposed fine on Inteligo Media

Date: 26.09.2019

Responsible body: Inteligo Media SA

Type of data breach: violation e-mail communication

Romanian fine imposed on Inteligo Media for email communications with data subjects in violation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has violated.

Firstly, according to research, when creating an account on the avocatnet.ro website - which belongs to Inteligo Media SA - an unchecked box was displayed with the following text: "I do not want to receive "Personal Update", the information sent daily, free of charge, by email, by avocatnet.ro" (in German: "Ich möchte kein "Persönliches Update" erhalten, welches täglich kostenfreie Informationen per E-Mail von avocatnet.ro enthält"). According to the supervisory authority, the user's email address is automatically entered in the subscriber database if he/she does not tick the checkbox.

Thus, the subscription was concluded without the express consent to the processing of the personal data of the users. According to the Romanian supervisory authority, 4357 persons are affected.

Furthermore, Inteligo Media SA sent emails to data subjects using the wrong legal basis. According to the supervisory authority, the legal basis "contract processing" would not correspond to the actual purpose.

Legal basis:

• Article 5 paragraph (1)(a) and (b)
• Article 6 paragraph (1)(a)
• Article 7

Fines: 9000 Euro

Country: Romania

Source: European Data Protection Board

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