PAYONE GmbH, a firm with historical court findings of racism and a key subsidiary of the struggling French payments giant Worldline, is heading to a high-stakes 7-day trial this October as its corporate culture and data security protocols come under the microscope.
The upcoming trial follows appellate rulings which confirmed that staff at the firm had previously engaged in acts of racism spanning a 4 year period. In a significant 2025 blow to the company’s defense, the appeal court recently rejected PAYONE’s attempt to justify the conduct based on the basis of “I didn’t mean it,” ruling instead that the racist effect on the victim is the primary legal metric.
The October trial will re-examine the Payone circulation of a controversial ‘Pure Blonde‘ video in a work WhatsApp group.
Systemic Failures and the ‘Google Translate’ Defense
The upcoming October hearing will now examine whether these incidents were part of a wider pattern of systemic policy-related race discrimination. Central to the proceedings are startling admissions regarding the company’s operational security and its treatment of non German-speaking staff.
Evidence from initial court trial (2023) revealed a chaotic “workaround” culture. Findings showed that the Claimant was compelled to photograph internal presentation slides just to translate them via non-company internet online tools because the company failed to provide any translation policy or tools.
Perhaps PAYONE should have simply spent the money on professional translation tools for its non-German speaking staff or perhaps more simply, only hired German speakers.
Furthermore, PAYONE’s own Data Protection Officer, Axel Moritz, suggested an alternative. According to the 2023 judgment (Para 324), the company’s “alternative”. to a secure translation policy was for the claimant to manually “redact” private names from sensitive documents before uploading them to public, third-party translation websites.
A Culture of Exclusion
The judgment further detailed a period between January 2020 and mid-2021 where a Mrs Fischer confirmed that PAYONE’s website was exclusively in German, with no English version available (Para 318). Additional evidence from Sven-Moritz Becker (Para 325) highlighted the confusion surrounding “highly sensitive” meeting minutes that were circulated only in German, leaving non-German speakers in the dark regarding critical business information.
While the 2023 judgment documented a ‘workaround’ culture involving unsecure online translation tools, it might be a matter of regulatory concern (or relief) whether PAYONE has since modernised its translation policies, or lack thereof. With the October 2026 trial set to scrutinize the firm’s operational standards, it remains to be seen whether the proceedings will reveal a genuine shift toward professional translation or if the firm’s controversial ‘redact-and-upload’ alternative persists to this day.”
For a regulated payments entity handling global transactions, the admission of a “redact-and-upload” alternative data strategy and the lack of basic language infrastructure represents a potential regulatory and compliance nightmare.
As the 5 October 2026 trial date approaches, the industry is watching to see how the firm explains both its proven history of harassment and its alleged disregard for international data processing standards.
Disclaimer: This article is based on findings and testimony from the Employment Tribunal (2023) and the Employment Appeal Tribunal (2025) in the matter involving PAYONE GmbH. While certain acts of racial harassment have been judicially confirmed, other allegations remain subject to a full merits hearing scheduled for October 2026. Payone GmbH deny all allegations being revisited in October 2026. All individuals named provided sworn evidence in public proceedings and are named in the public judgments.
