Can an employer give an employee's email address to a parking company? GDPR breach?

SouthLondonUser

John Doe parks his car at his employer's car park, for which he has a valid parking permit.
A parking company issues a "charge" for not having paid for parking.
John Doe complains that he had a parking permit, but both the parking company and the employer, which owns the land, ignore the complaint.

After the usual threatening letters from debt collectors, John receives a threatening email from the parking company, on his company email address. John has never contacted the parking company, so can only infer that his employer must have provided his email to the parking company.

Questions:

• Is this legal or a breach of GDPR?
• If it is not legal, what options does John have? E.g. complaining to the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office)?
• How long does John have to complain to the ICO? Maybe complaining to the ICO now might see John labelled as a troublemaker, but if John were to leave his company it might be easier to file the complaint.

saajan_12

I'm not sure a company email address would constitute personal information for GDPR, if its company owned and just used by John Doe. 

Also is his email address something like john.doe@company.com or jdoe@company.com? It would also be a struggle to prove that the company provided the email address rather than the parking co guessing it, as these are usually standard formats. 

In account of both points above, I'd focus on the usual parking arguments rather than the sharing of an email address. 

SouthLondonUser

I'm not sure a company email address would constitute personal information for GDPR, if its company owned and just used by John Doe. 

The short answer is yes.
Eg https://www.cognitivelaw.co.uk/gdpr-issues-do-work-emails-count-as-personal-data/
https://www.beswicks.com/work-email-address-personal-data-gdpr/

Brie

As I understand it a parking company can get info from DVLA and then post a letter to the keeper's address as held by DVLA.  They shouldn't have access to any email addresses, particularly not an work one.  The only exception might be a work's vehicle where the keeper is in fact the employer who has then passed the info on to the employee via the work email addresss.

Coupon-mad

I doubt your employer gave it out.

More likely the scam debt collectors (who you must ignore) found it connected to a phone contract, insurance or bank/credit card account when they did a soft trace.

Half_way

Probably not a GDPR breach, however if your employer has instructed the parking company to operate on the land  this is a work issue and should be dealt with at your employers expense and you should deal with this during your normal paid working time/hours as they (your employer) will be liable for the actions of their agents

fisherjim

Wouldn't your efforts be better employed fighting the stupid charge rather than this communications debate, most people complain of lack of communication rather than getting it.

I would send it back if it bothers you with bold letters saying SPAM BLOCKED! and click the report as spam icon.

Thorndorise

SouthLondonUser said:

John Doe parks his car at his employer's car park, for which he has a valid parking permit.
A parking company issues a "charge" for not having paid for parking.
John Doe complains that he had a parking permit, but both the parking company and the employer, which owns the land, ignore the complaint.

Honestly I'm not sure what to make of your employer!

You had a permit to park your car there, you work for them, you parked in your employer's car park, you employer has an agent that acts as a parking controller - who issued you a ticket...

I find it utterly bonkers work have ignored it, regardless of your position in that company, I would be writing a very strong letter of complaint to your HR dept, copy your manager and your MD - why on earth would they ignore it (also I really would recommend putting it formally in writing to them if you haven't already).

Totally agree with the above - ignore the debt collectors - push down Plan A - that is where this should be resolved.