D: State Labor Court of Cologne on employee photos on the homepage

Category: Nachrichten, Urteile
By: K. Schiefer - 2B Advice GmbH - the privacy benchmark

In the Internet age, many companies illustrate their business homepage with photos of their employees. Using such photos isn't entirely unproblematic.

 

In the present case, an employer had taken a photo of a female employee and posted it on the contact page of the company's homepage. It shows the employee on the phone. The contact page made no other reference to the employee besides her photo, neither including her name nor other data. After the employee left the company, the employer continued to use the photo on the contact page. The employee opposed this.

 

The State Labor Court of Cologne ruled that the action of the employer was legal. A ruling from July 10, 2009 (reference 7 Ta 126/09) declared the complaint by the employee to be unsubstantiated, stating that the employee's prior consent did not expire with the termination of the employer-employee relationship. Since the contact page made no reference to the employee's identity and the photo was used only for decoration purposes, it was replaceable by a photo of any other person in the same pose. The employer therefore did not have to show a heightened interest in removing the photo immediately upon termination of the employer-employee relationship. A change in the homepage was only required after the wish to have the photo removed had been expressly stated.

 

In the case of doubt, however, the opposite should be assumed if an employer uses an employee's image deliberately in order to attract customers with the employee's unique identity, such as by gearing to the special expertise of an employee who is well-known in the industry.

 

As a result of this ruling, companies have an increased responsibility to review which employee photos on their homepage are used merely for decoration purposes and which photos are used to attract business through the employee's identity. The latter must be removed immediately upon termination of the work contract. In all other cases, photos should be removed from the homepage immediately if the employee requests so. If such requests are not honored, the employer could be liable for compensation.

 

 

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