Another wave of dunning letters from a Lower Austrian lawyer is causing a great deal of trouble for companies throughout Austria. The accusation is that the companies use Google Fonts on their websites in violation of data protection law. A comparison is offered for a payment of 190 euros. The Upper Austrian Chamber of Commerce announced on Wednesday that it would support a test case if a company was actually sued. Further legal steps and legal action options would be examined.
Hundreds of inquiries have been received in our service center in the past few days and the service employees and legal experts are constantly on duty to support our members in this matter with advice and action,” said WKOÖ President Doris Lobster. In addition, the Chamber of Commerce organization provides comprehensive information on this throughout Austria theme. This information is continuously supplemented and adjusted.
“The WKO will support a test case in the event of a lawsuit. At the same time, further legal steps and legal action options are being examined. The Lower Austrian Bar Association has also initiated preliminary proceedings against this lawyer,” says WKOÖ Director Gerald Silberhumer.
Regardless of whether a warning letter has already been issued, companies that operate a website should check the use of Google Fonts for legal compliance, advises the professional association.
Google provides a wide range of fonts, so-called fonts. These help companies build websites. Google does not ask for any money, but the IP addresses of the visitors are transmitted to the Internet company when loading these Google fonts. Since 2018, this has only been permitted with the consent of the user – unless the fonts are previously loaded onto a separate server.
The OÖN already reported on the cause in July:
Source: Nachrichten
