On February 18, 2021, the District Court of Berlin overturned a €14.5 million fine that had been imposed on German real estate company Deutsche Wohnen SE. The Court held that the fine – which was issued by the Berlin Supervisory Authority (“SA”) and had been the second highest fine in Germany so far under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) – failed to satisfy certain rules under German law, and therefore was invalid.
This case raises important questions on the interplay between the GDPR and German law regarding the attribution of regulatory offenses to a company. In this blog post, we consider this topic in greater depth and how it may eventually be resolved in court.