Anyone who believes that their right to the protection of personal data has been violated can complain to the Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency with a request for the protection of rights, which the Agency decides on with a decision.
The Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency is an independent body that supervises the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and performs tasks within the scope and competences established by the Law on the Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation.
The Agency is continuously making efforts to ensure that appropriate privacy protection (personal data protection), as one of the fundamental human rights, becomes a generally accepted principle of work for all those who collect, process and transmit personal data.
The Agency imposes administrative fines for violations of the provisions of the Act on the Implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation and the General Data Protection Regulation.
If an administrative fine is imposed against a legal entity with public authority or against a legal entity performing a public service, the imposed administrative fine must not jeopardize the performance of such public authority or public service.
Criminal sanctions
The Croatian Criminal Code prescribes sanctions for the criminal acts:
- Violation of the inviolability of home and business premises (Art. 141),
- Violation of the confidentiality of letters and other items (Art. 142),
- Unauthorized sound recording and wiretapping (Art. 143),
- Unauthorized image recording ( Art. 144)
- Unauthorized use of personal data (Art. 146)
There are no criminal sanctions for situations where your personal data has been violated or where you were the one violating someones right to personal data. In both cases, a private lawsuit is submitted to the competent court within three months from the day when the authorized natural or legal person became aware of the criminal offense and the perpetrator.
Civil remedies: compensation & apology
If someone believes that your publication has violated their right to private life, you will most often be sued in civil proceedings for civil remedies. These usually include monetary compensation or an apology. When a judge is deciding on the type of remedy or the amount of compensation, he/she must ensure proportionality between the restriction on your free speech and the protection of another’s privacy. Therefore, in making such a decision the judge should evaluate:
- the purpose of revealing the private information to the public
- the gravity of the intrusion into privacy (for example, the publishing of very intimate or embarrassing photographs, or revealing private, but fairly neutral facts about someone’s whereabouts)
- the distress caused to the person
- the amount of damages awarded in similar cases