Worldline Subsidiary, Payone, 2024 Court Dates and Legal Proceedings Announced

Worldline’s German-based entity, Payone GmbH, finds itself entangled in various legal proceedings spanning from regulatory-related matters to matters related to Equality Act proceedings. The scheduled court dates for these cases are as follows:

23 February 2024: County Court Hearing in London

  1. Payone is the Defendant in this matter
  2. Nature of the Matter: Relating to a settlement offer and Payone request to withdraw regulatory disclosures deemed to be in the public interest.
  3. Key Focus: Resolution of regulatory concerns and settlement discussions.

25 March 2024: UK High Court Kings Bench Division Hearing 10.30am (KB-2023-000134)

  1. Payone GmbH is the Claimant in this matter
  2. Nature of the Matter: Involves but not limited to matters relating to 2022/2023 whistleblowing disclosures to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the German Regulator BAFIN. It remains uncertain whether the disclosures led to the BAFIn ban on Payone business activity due to serious Payone issues with money laundering checks.
  3. Additional Details: Payone seeks to prevent further disclosures, secure a permanent injunction, and faces a counterclaim regarding alleged breaches of UK Pension Regulations from 2012 to 2021.

01 May 2024: Employment Appeal Tribunal (EA-2023-000822)

  1. Payone GmbH is the Respondent in this matter
  2. Nature of the Matter: Rule 3(10) hearing related to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 and alleged causing of detriment to a whistleblower following disclosures to the Pensions Regulator.
  3. Additional Details: Payone, although not required to be in attendance, is a party to proceedings.
  4. Key Focus: The Appellant seeks an appeal of the lower court’s judgment, and seeks to progress the matter to a full ppeal hearing

01 May 2024: Employment Appeal Tribunal 14.00 (EA-2023-001266)

  1. Payone GmbH is the Respondent in this matter
  2. Nature of the Matter: Preliminary Hearing proceedings related to a 10-day hearing at the Watford Employment Tribunal in 2023.
  3. Key Focus: The Appellant seeks an appeal of the lower court’s judgment.
  4. Additional Details: Payone, although not required to be in attendance, is a party to proceedings.

Additional Matters

Court of Appeal decision awaiting in two separate matters relating to Payone GmBH and the injunction as well as involving matters related to use of the counterclaimant’s Apple ID Account for a 4 year period, following Payone GmbH reliance on the employees private Apple ID password and private mobile phone to engage in client activity.

Loopline Media, as a dedicated media outlet, is committed to providing timely and accurate reporting on each of these legal cases involving Payone, a subsidiary of Worldline. Our commitment to transparency means that our reporting will strive to provide stakeholders with clear insights into the legal proceedings, including key updates, outcomes, and implications. By adhering to the principles of open justice, Loopline Media aims to foster greater understanding and accountability within the community while upholding the highest standards of journalistic integrity.

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Post-Brexit: data protection
Card processor sends sensitive data to wrong address
24 August 2022

Worldline SA subsidiary Payone GmbH has been accused of breaching data protection rules after it sent sensitive employee payroll information to the wrong address by accident. The Worldline Group holdS a 60% stake in the Frankfurt based company who have a small UK market presence.

In June 2021, one of Payone GmbH’s ex UK employees (the data subject) received a “potential data breach notification” from the firm advising him that his salary, National Insurance data, nationality (Special Category Data) was amongst various bits of information sent to an incorrect home address.

This included personal information such as the former employees name, age and address.  It also included details such as the date of birth and the amount of annual work bonus he received in his bank account amongst other identifiable data.

Payone GmbH confirmed that this document was sent out in error following an employee making a mistake when re-entering data processed by their third-party payroll provider.  The error arose when the employee was fulfilling an Article 15 GDPR request. The error was spotted by the data subject when he noticed in an email version of the document that the postal address was incorrect. An attempt to notify Payone GmbH of the error went in vain as the document was already irretrievably despatched.

The data subject was alarmed with the incident which exposed him to the possibility of fraudulent activity, amidst reasonable fears his data could end up on the dark web and used by criminals.  Habitually resident in the UK he complained to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) in June 2021. He similarly raised the concern in Germany via The Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI).

The ICO reprimanded Payone GmbH for the error in their final decision letter.
Similarly, the HBDI cited a violation of Article 5(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) relating to integrity and confidentiality.

The ICO stated in their July 2021 findings that Payone GmbH, “should take steps to ensure that all personal data records are accurate and up to date. Holding inaccurate information, such as addresses, does increase the risk of personal data breaches and poses risks to the security of information”.

The HBDI confirmed in their October 2021 findings that Payone GmbH had taken remedial action. They concluded that a monetary fine would not be imposed on Payone GmbH as they had taken technical and organisational steps in response to the data breach. Data subjects could now request their data in an autonomous portal.

The GDPR, which came into effect in 2018, gave the Information Commissioner’s Office greater powers to tackle data breaches. The new ‘UK GDPR’ charts its own course after Brexit whilst seeking to maintain EU GDPR adequacy.  In extreme scenarios, organisations face penalties of up to £20m or 4 per cent of their global worldwide turnover, whichever is more.

In the years prior to GDPR, the ICO fines were capped at £500,000.

The data subject said: “I am just glad I spotted it; they were going to resend the document again to another wrong address. Prior to Brexit the process would have been commenced via the ICO who in turn would liaise with the HBDI on the data subjects’ behalf; but I found myself communicating with both authorities separately which was an additional step but in the end was surprisingly
effective. Unfortunately, Payone GmbH again sent my incorrect address to the
Workers Pension Trust in January 2022, and documents yet again went to the wrong address. In my opinion they have not learned from the first time and my complaint is sitting with the ICO yet again”.

The former employee is pursuing a remedy under Article 82 UK GDPR via
the Court’s of England & Wales.

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