Scandal at IKEA Vienna: €1.5 million fine for secretly filming customers while entering PIN codes!
Ikea has been fined 1.5 million euros in Vienna after it was found to have illegally filmed passersby and customers in front of the store and in the checkout area, including moments when they entered their PIN codes. The Federal Administrative Court (BVwG) confirmed the decision on Tuesday, while Ikea announced its intention to appeal, claiming it did not process any personal data.
In its ruling, the court largely agreed with the position of the Austrian Data Protection Authority, which initiated the case following investigations into violations that occurred in 2022. The investigations revealed 30 breaches of data protection laws. In addition to the fine, IKEA is required to pay €150,000 in procedural costs.
The court confirmed 28 out of 30 violations. The results showed that one of the cameras recorded PIN codes of identifiable customers and retained the recordings for 72 hours. It was also found that six other cameras monitored areas where the company had no legal basis to surveil, and seven cameras covered excessively large areas, such as monitoring snow removal. Additionally, individuals not involved were not digitally obscured in some areas, and IKEA blamed a former employee of a security company, but did not rectify the mistake later.
For her part, Christina Strauss, head of public relations at IKEA Austria, stated that the company's electronic security system does not process any personal data, and thus "there can be no violation of data protection law." She added that the penalty is "excessively high," especially since no one has been harmed, emphasizing that "legal data protection is a top priority for IKEA," and that video surveillance is necessary to combat theft and vandalism at the Westbahnhof branch.
The court noted that tens of thousands of people had been captured in a recognizable manner between March 25 and May 25, 2022, as cameras recorded crowded public areas near the Vienna Westbahnhof station, including side entrances and tram and subway stations. It was also found that the surveillance system began operating before obtaining the necessary data protection assessment.
Nevertheless, no significant material or moral harm to the victims was identified, and the registered PIN codes were not used in any illegal transactions. The penalty was partially mitigated due to IKEA's cooperation with the authorities, its good record, its handling of the issue, the deletion of the recordings, and the fact that it did not gain any financial benefit from the incident.