German and even American media have reported extensively that the data inspection in Hamburg has opened an investigation against the Swedish clothing giant, but in Sweden the deal has not yet received as much attention. Former CEO Karl-Johan Persson answered SVT's questions in connection with the financial statements. He admitted that the company acted inappropriately.

- It is very sad what happened, and we take it very seriously. There are some employees who have access to sensitive information, it is a miss from us, and now we help the authorities to sort this out, he said.

The new CEO does not want to answer

New CEO Helena Helmersson also regretted what happened in an SVT interview.

- It's super-unhappy, what happened. Of course, we must follow the laws that exist when it comes to storing such sensitive data, ”she says.

According to German data inspection, H&M has only acknowledged that sensitive information was available to an excessive number of employees. Helena Helmersson does not want to answer if it was wrong of H&M to collect and store so large amounts of sensitive information about its employees from the beginning.

- I have a hard time going into the matter in itself, you are welcome to take the matter with others, but of course we reported to the authorities as soon as possible, says Helena Helmersson.

Risk of fines

Violations of GDPR can result in fines of up to four percent of turnover for large companies - in H & M's case it could theoretically be up to a couple of billions. But H&M has not so far put any money in the accounting for any fines according to the outgoing CEO Karl-Johan Persson.

- No we haven't put any money in yet, but we are following the situation, he tells SVT.

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H&M risks fine following investigation into unauthorized data collection of employees' privacy