“No more spreadsheets for our compliance!”

Introduction

kfzteile24 operates as an omnichannel company. In addition to a successful online store for car parts and accessories, they also run physical stores with in-house workshops. Their catalog features an impressive 2.5 million products.

kfzteile24 serves both B2B and B2C customers, blending the convenience of online retail—wide selection at fair prices—with the reliability of traditional wholesale, which includes prompt delivery and high service quality. This approach stands out in a market where the online channel is still finding its footing. For example, 10,000 products ship daily from their logistics hub in Brandenburg.

They’ve also invested heavily in their B2B business over the years. In fact, workshops and related businesses now make up more than half of their customer base, receiving up to three daily deliveries in East Germany thanks to kfzteile24’s dedicated delivery teams.

The Berlin-based company has expanded beyond Germany, too. Through their subsidiary, Carpardoo, customers can order parts in Austria, the Netherlands, Denmark, and France. With a customer-centric focus, kfzteile24 offers various delivery options, expert advice, and has made investments in data protection. That’s where caralegal comes into play.

Challenge

The Legal Counsel at kfzteile24, alongside the legal team, handles all company-related legal matters, including data protection coordination—a role they’ve had since 2018, supported by a data privacy consultancy that recommended caralegal as a new tool.

After researching available tools, it was clear that caralegal offered advantages not found in older GDPR compliance software on the market. caralegal is flexible, user-friendly, multilingual, and sports a top-notch user experience—key requirements for an international company where a quarter of the staff works in English.

Getting buy-in for a new tool required convincing the budget holders. Annika Scholz from caralegal provided early pricing information and presentation materials, which were pivotal for the well-prepared pitch.

Analysis

To provide a clear picture, the Legal Counsel prepared a memo. This document outlined kfzteile24’s current standing in terms of data protection, identified ongoing challenges, and detailed how caralegal could offer a solution.

In short, caralegal serves as a legal assistant that automates processes and enhances cross-departmental collaboration. But what’s the cost? With the help of a caralegal consultant, they developed a cost estimate that also considered the time and expense savings caralegal could bring over the long term.

When kfzteile24 evaluated its workflows in 2018, the process was time-consuming: initial data entry by employees, review by the legal department, and final checks by the data protection officer. The findings indicated that caralegal could cut costs in the mid-five figures and save a substantial amount of time. The decision to invest in caralegal was an easy one after seeing the potential savings and efficiency gains.

A pivotal moment came during a 2018 procedural review. Back then, information was initially gathered by team members, then passed on to the legal department, and finally routed to the data protection officer for further checks.

The analysis showed that by implementing caralegal, kfzteile24 could save costs in the mid-five-figure range and, more importantly, a significant amount of time. With such compelling potential savings, the decision to adopt caralegal as their data protection tool was clear-cut.

Solution

“caralegal was incredibly cooperative throughout the contract phase,” shares the Legal Counsel. “They tailored the platform to our needs, showing real insight into our industry and a strong commitment to customer satisfaction.”


Employees welcomed the change, too, knowing caralegal would save valuable time. Long Excel sheets are now a thing of the past, thanks to caralegal’s cloud-based platform, which means that work can be done anytime, anywhere.

Today, team leaders are connected to the privacy tool, as is the entire legal department. The platform streamlines the work of employees who complete or update data processing documentation. The first steps involved migrating legacy records and standardizing terms across the board. caralegal’s unique resource management features made this easy.

So far, data processing contracts have been uploaded, and the first data protection impact assessment has been completed. Over the coming months, more departments will be brought on board, with caralegal providing training as needed.

“Looking ahead, we expect to save even more time,” says the Legal Counsel. “The AI-powered features allow for faster responses from departments. Instead of sending an email, we can now assign tasks directly through caralegal, making the whole process much quicker!”