NRW consumer advice center is suing Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica

René Resch

The consumer advice center NRW has filed a lawsuit against Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica and Vodafone because the companies have passed on “positive data” from their customers to credit agencies without their consent. The consumer center sees this as a violation of the General Data Protection Regulation, this was announced in a message.

In contrast to “negative data”, which contains information on payment arrears, for example, the “positive data” provide information on when and with whom how many contracts were concluded. However, customers have a right to know what data companies store about you and pass on to third parties.

The lawsuit was preceded by unsuccessful warnings

As the consumer advice center announced, the lawsuit was preceded by unsuccessful warnings against Telekom, Vodafone and Telefónica. Transmission without the consent of the customer is not permitted. The consumer advice center wrote in the official report:

“The subject of the positive data transmitted to credit agencies is regularly information on existing contracts, e.g. when a contract was concluded with whom or how many contracts a person has concluded in total. In contrast to negative data, which can contain behavior that is not in accordance with the contract – such as e.g. unpaid invoices – the persons concerned have not been guilty of anything before the transmission of positive data. Although harmless at first glance, positive data is still worth protecting: From the decisions made by consumers, such as the number of contracts concluded or frequent changes of contract, companies can draw consequences – and classify those affected as untrustworthy with regard to future contracts.”