• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

An Austrian newspaper, Der Standard, has lost a round in its legal battle over its alleged violation of The European Union’s data-protection rules. 

The Austrian Federal Administrative Court upheld an decision by the Data Protection Authority, stating that the firm breached the rules by offering a “pay or OK” subscription plan, according to Euro News.

Consumers were offered a choice of accessing the publication’s website for free, thus consenting to the collection of data for targeted advertising, or paying a €9,90 fee for access without data tracking, Euro News adds.

This would appear to be a form of coercion. 

"'Pay or OK' undermines a core pillar of the GDPR: freely given consent,” says privacy activist Max Schrems. “Instead of a genuine choice of users, we get a North Korean consent rate of 99.9% with this system.” 

The EU requires that consumers are able to consent to specific types of processing, but Der Standard argued in its appeal that such a “granular” consent model is not possible, Euro News reports. 

The decision is likely to be appealed.