British-German surveillance technology provider Gamma International infringed on its human rights obligations with products such as “state trojan” FinFischer. This was confirmed by the United Kingdom’s OECD National Contact Point (NCP) on Thursday in the final assessment of a complaint submitted by human rights groups. The NCP calls on Gamma –explicitly including other companies affiliated with the corporation – to implement effective human rights standards...

The German NCP, which is tied to the Federal Ministry of Economy, rejected the complaint against Trovicor in December 2013, deciding that it could “only conduct a further examination of the general risk management of Trovicor.” It considered the evidence regarding other topics of the complaint as not substantial enough to warrant further scrutiny.
 
“The fact that the National Contact Points in Germany and in the United Kingdom diverged in their assessments of the complaints is once again evidence of the failings in the German complaint procedure,” said Miriam Saage-Maaß. “The German NCP must be restructured to be more independent – for example by placing it, as does the UK, under the supervision of a board that appoints civil society representatives as well."...