Court decision · 4 May 2023
UI v Österreichische Post AG
Case C-300/21, ECLI:EU:C:2023:370 · Court of Justice of the European Union
What it means for your code
Data-protection lapses can ground individual damages claims even for modest harm, which makes mass claims after incidents viable.
What happened
An individual sought non-material damages after the postal service inferred his political affinity from data without consent.
What was decided
A mere GDPR infringement does not by itself give rise to compensation; the claimant must show damage caused by it, but there is no minimum threshold of seriousness for non-material damage.
The legal test applied
- Compensation under Art. 82 requires an infringement, damage and a causal link
- Non-material damage need not reach a threshold of seriousness
What would have changed the outcome
- A bare infringement without any demonstrated damage does not ground compensation
Read the decision at the source
Summary and analysis by Lawpatch, checked by an editor against the source. Risk analysis, not legal advice; the law may have moved on since this decision.