€100,000 GDPR Fine: The Document Management Mistake That Cost a Real Estate Agency

Data protection is no longer a “nice-to-have.” It is a core business responsibility — and regulators across Europe are proving they are ready to enforce it.

A recent case in Croatia shows exactly how expensive poor document management can become. The Croatian Personal Data Protection Agency (AZOP) issued a €100,000 fine to a real estate agency for multiple GDPR violations, including keeping personal data longer than necessary, processing sensitive documents without legal grounds, and failing to implement proper internal controls and employee training.

For many companies, this story sounds familiar — overflowing archives, unclear retention rules, duplicated files, and inconsistent employee practices. The good news? These are not just compliance problems. They are Enterprise Content Management (ECM) problems — and they are solvable.

Below is what went wrong, why it matters, and how KORTO.io helps you prevent the same risks with automated, tag-based document management.

What went wrong: the key GDPR failures

1. Data stored long after its purpose expired

The company retained personal data from 11,887 clients long after contracts ended, violating the GDPR principle of storage limitation.

This is one of the most common compliance risks today: organizations collect documents but rarely define clear retention timelines — so data simply stays forever.

2. Processing sensitive documents without legal basis

Inspectors found hundreds of copies of ID cards, passports, health cards, driver’s licenses, and even bank cards without a valid legal reason for storing them.

This violated GDPR principles of lawfulness and data minimization — only collecting and keeping what is truly necessary.

3. Lack of internal control and employee training

Employees were processing personal data without clear instructions or consistent oversight. Training was irregular and insufficient, exposing the company to unnecessary risk.

In short: the problem was not just people — it was the absence of a structured system.

Why this happens in real businesses

Most GDPR failures are not intentional. They usually happen because:

• Filing systems rely on folders and manual naming conventions
• Documents live across emails, drives, and personal storage
• No automated retention policies exist
• Employees decide individually what to keep or delete
• Companies cannot easily track who accessed what

This creates “data chaos” — and regulators increasingly see this as negligence, not bad luck.

The practical solution: Enterprise Content Management (ECM)

Enterprise Content Management is designed to eliminate these risks by controlling how documents are captured, stored, accessed, and eventually removed.

Instead of asking employees to remember rules, ECM systems enforce them automatically — and that’s where KORTO.io comes in.

How KORTO.io prevents GDPR problems before they start

Tag-based filing instead of messy folders

KORTO replaces complicated folder hierarchies with a smart tagging system.

Every document receives system-generated tags (such as source, date, and type), and teams can add additional labels for context. This means:

• Files can’t be misplaced
• Retrieval becomes fast and consistent
• Classification works the same way across teams

No more “where did we save that contract?”

Automated data retention and deletion

The biggest issue in the AZOP case was storing data too long.

With KORTO, you can use action tags to trigger retention and lifecycle workflows, for example:

• Delete employee records after termination-related deadlines
• Remove invoices after retention periods expire
• Trigger legal review before destroying sensitive documents
• Apply GDPR deletion rules automatically

Instead of relying on memory, retention becomes built into the system.

Controlled access across teams

Many compliance breaches happen because too many people can access sensitive data.

KORTO supports role-based permissions so that:

• Employees only see what they need
• Departments avoid parallel filing systems and data silos
• Access is traceable via activity logs

AI-powered automation for safer document handling

With integrations, KORTO can support:

• Automated tagging
• OCR text extraction across formats
• Context detection (e.g., dates, places, legal entities)
• Cleaner, more consistent classification at scale

The result is a more reliable archive with less manual work.

Compliance-ready security features

KORTO helps strengthen compliance and audit readiness with features such as:

• Audit logs
• Granular access management
• Electronic signatures and timestamps
• Optional blockchain integration for tamper-proof records

What every business should do next

If your organization:

• Stores old contracts “just in case”
• Keeps copies of IDs or financial documents without clear rules
• Has inconsistent employee practices across teams
• Cannot quickly locate, export, or delete personal data

…then the risk already exists. The fastest way to reduce it is to stop relying on manual processes and start enforcing retention, access, and accountability through ECM automation.

How to start with KORTO.io

You don’t need to rebuild everything from scratch. KORTO can connect to your existing sources (file shares, SharePoint, and email systems) to automate pulling, tagging, and managing documents across their lifecycle.

Once your content is centralized and consistently tagged, you can implement retention procedures, access controls, and audit-ready reporting in a way that scales across teams.

GDPR compliance is no longer about paperwork — it’s about having the right system in place.