Dismissal for objective reason of data protection officer between data protection law and national legislation

Abstract

This contribution analyses the content and the relevance of the ruling of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in the Leistritz AG/LH case which does not preclude national legislation from providing that a data controller (or a data processor) may terminate the employment contract of a data protection officer (DPO) only with just cause, even if the contractual termination is not related to the performance of that officer's tasks, in so far as such legislation does not undermine the achievement of the objectives of that regulation.