Effo faces court over alleged data protection breaches
Friday 11th September 2026 on 10:01 in
Faroe Islands
Effo is facing a three-day court hearing over alleged breaches of data protection law, Kringvarp Føroya (KVF) reports. The Data Protection Authority says the company should receive a fine of 15 million kroner, while prosecutors have not yet disclosed the amount they will seek.
The case opens at Føroya Court on Friday. Proceedings will then pause before resuming on 10 and 11 November.
Effo’s defence lawyer, Annfinn V. Hansen, said the case was initially expected to be resolved in one day. However, its scope and the number of witnesses to be heard meant that two additional days had to be scheduled.
Alleged security failures
The prosecution is seeking a fine for alleged violations of Section 78, subsection 1, paragraph 1, in conjunction with Section 46, subsection 1, of the law on the protection of personal data.
The indictment says Effo had not carried out a risk assessment, had no written IT security policy and had not acted on requests from an auditor who had twice asked the company to address these issues.
It also says that unknown hackers gained access to all of Effo’s IT systems on 12 August 2022 and encrypted all the information, leaving P/F Effo unable to access its data.
The Data Protection Authority considers the breach serious enough to warrant a 15 million-kroner fine. Chief prosecutor Katrin Thorsvig Hansen declined to say how much the prosecution will seek, saying the demand will be presented during the court proceedings.