Important ruling may suggest development in the law governing employers' access to employee emails

Are employers allowed to access their employees' email or does such behaviour violate the secrecy of telecommunications? Legal commentary and case law suggests that the prevailing view is that employers are not permitted to access their employees' e-mail if employees have been allowed to use their company email address for private purposes. However, the Administrative Court in Karlsruhe on 27 May 2013 decided differently in an important lawsuit which involved the former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Stefan Mappus, as employee (docket number – 2 K 3249/12). It granted the employer access to the employee's email communication even though he had been allowed private use of his company email address. It will be interesting to follow the development of this highly controversial topic and see whether the predominant position will continue to prevail. Until a last-resort decision by the Federal Labor Court in Germany acknowledges the change in legal practice, employers should carefully assess the potential legal risk and continue to explicitly prohibit private use of company email accounts in order to enable themselves to access those accounts at a later stage if required.

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