The ruling revealed that the recording equipment had been put in place around two years with the aim of stopping preventing internal theft and reviewing the movement of product.

In October 2020 a fine of €35.3m was imposed on fashion company H&M for recording video footage of staff without a legal basis or authorization for doing so. This is the second GDPR penalty that the Lower Saxony data regulator has sanctioned such a heavy fine for activity related to unauthorized monitoring of staff. AG, operating as NBB, is an Internet-based marketplace with a physical retail chain that supplied laptops and other IT supplies. The illegal video footage was, typically, retained for a period of at least 60 days, which was also found to be much longer than was required to serve any purpose in the ruling released by state commissioner for data protection in Lower Saxony, Barbara Thiel. Notebook retailer AG (NBB) was discovered to have been carrying out intrusive video surveillance against its staff, without a legal basis, using unauthorized cameras in areas including workplaces, sales rooms, warehouses and other common areas for staff activity.

In Germany the data regulation authority in the Lower Saxony region has sanctioned a financial penalty of €10.4m against a a local laptop retailer due to the breach of the European Union’s general Data Protection Regulation as a result of conducting constant video surveillance of staff members, without a legal basis for doing so., over the past two years.

4m fine free