Unlawful data processing: automatic non-patrimonial damage

With its order No. 14242/2018, the Court of Cassation was requested to rule on the existence of non-patrimonial damage in case of unlawful data processing. In particular, the dispute under the close examination of Court of Cassation concerned the order to transfer a Customs Agency employee after commencement of an investigation by the Public Prosecutor’s Office concerning such employee.  The Order included in its own grounds the legal disputes in which the employee was involved and was issued by the Administration by using an ordinary protocol, fit for making the information on the employee’s litigation involvement available to all the Agency’s employees. Upon the outcome of the legal proceedings, the Court held that non-patrimonial damage had automatically arisen caused by the employer that processes the employee’s personal data, in breach of the data protection rules, unless the employer itself has adopted all appropriate measures to avoid it, or is capable of proving the respective absence or, at least, the substantial irrelevance.