ItalyRetail and e-commerce2018–2024Cappello Giovanni & Figli
Facial recognition for employee attendance and payroll
Italy banned a car dealer's facial attendance system and imposed a €120,000 fine covering biometric and employee-data violations
Problem
The dealership wanted to improve efficiency. It used facial recognition to record attendance for payroll.
Approach
Cappello began using X-Face 380 in December 2018 at its Modica and Ragusa sites. After an employee complained, the Garante found that biometric attendance processing lacked a legal basis. The company cited employee consent and a supplier's compliance declaration, but the regulator rejected those justifications. In June 2024, it banned the facial recognition processing and imposed a €120,000 fine that also covered violations involving separate management software.
Results
Takeaway
The dealership obtained consent and a supplier declaration, but neither established that biometric attendance processing was lawful.
Categories
- Size
- Small business
- Industry
- Retail and e-commerce
- Business function
- Human resources
- Innovation type
- Process innovation
- AI technology
- Computer vision
- Adoption
- Vendor solution
- Evidence
- Regulator, audit or court
Sources
Source summaries
The decision recorded the December 2018 deployment and approximately 40 employees. It rejected the company's legal justifications and prohibited biometric attendance processing.
This newsletter section reported the €120,000 fine following an employee complaint. It explained that the case involved both facial attendance tracking and separate software recording workshop activities.
Full details are in the original sources.
