In June 2019, the Conference of Independent Federal and State Data Protection Supervisory Authorities (DSK) drew up a concept for the calculation of fines in proceedings against companies. However, the concept was not published until 14 October. The new model is intended to facilitate a comprehensible practice in the calculation of fines.
DSK regards the turnover of a company as a suitable starting point for ensuring the effectiveness and proportionality of the fines. The allocation of fines is therefore carried out in five steps:
- Assignment of the company to a size class
- Determination of the average annual sales of the respective subgroup of the size class
- Determination of an economic basic value
- Multiplication of the determined basic value by a factor that depends on the severity of the circumstances of the case.
- Adjustment of the determined value based on circumstances relating to the offender and other circumstances not yet taken into account
The categorisation of companies according to size classes (A to D) and the calculations in steps 2 to 5 can be found in the DSK publication (available only in German).
According to the DSK, this procedure should guarantee a comprehensible, transparent and case-by-case form of fine allocation.