Constitutional Court's Recent Decision Regarding Inspection On Employee E-mails

Constitutional Court's decision of 12 January 2021 concerning the application no. 2018/31036¹ discusses, once again, employer inspection on employees' corporate e-mail accounts and the terminations relying on the collected correspondences, in scope of the right to protection of personal data and freedom of communication.

In the said decision, the Constitutional Court found no violation as to the right to protection of personal data and freedom of communication, since the employment contract stated that the employee was obliged to use the corporate e-mail for business purposes, and that the employer could always inspect the e-mail account. Furthermore, the decision shed light on the application of the principle of proportionality by stressing that the employer only examined the messages supporting his claims and used such correspondences during the trial process only to prove his arguments.