On 6 October 2022, Advocate General Campos Sánchez-Bordona issued his opinion in Case C‑300/21 (Österreichische Post AG – non-material damage resulting from unlawful processing of data), pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union.
In a nutshell, the Advocate General concluded that:
- Article 82 of the GDPR is to be interpreted as meaning that for the purposes of the award of compensation for damage suffered by a person as a result of an infringement of the GDPR, a mere infringement of the provision is not in itself sufficient if that infringement is not accompanied by the relevant material or non-material damage;
- the compensation for non-material damage provided for in the GDPR does not cover mere upset that the person concerned may feel as a result of the infringement of provisions of the GDPR, and it is for the national courts to determine when, owing to its characteristics, a subjective feeling of displeasure may be deemed, in each case, to be non-material damage.
A press release is not yet available, but the full opinion is available here.
Following this opinion, now we expect the Court’s decision.
