After dropping an appeal, asset manager Scalable Capital has to pay 2,500 euros in damages to one of its former clients.

It is the first final judgment following the data leak in October 2020, which affected up to 33,000 of the neobroker's customers.

Data protection lawyers and enterprising service providers could now conjure up the precedent in Germany.

After all, that's how business works.

However, after more than four years of direct legal application of the GDPR in Germany, the reality in many companies is that the regulations are documented and accessible to everyone, diligent training has been carried out and countless documents have been created - and violations still occur every day.

Often because they do not recognize (overwhelmed) providers or are tolerated by (ignorant) consumers.

In many everyday legal transactions there is a sloppy handling of personal data, and at the same time sensitivity to the disclosure of personal information is growing in our society.

Gross violations such as the disclosure of thousands of data sets on the Internet will probably occur more frequently in the future.

If disappointed customers, as has long been possible in Great Britain, join together in class action lawsuits, it will also threaten the existence of German companies - amounts such as 2500 euros will then no longer be sufficient.