Unless there is a political earthquake (some would say a miracle) Brexit will happen on 29 March 2019. Upon Brexit the UK will cease to be an EU Member State and become a so-called ‘third country’. As a result, UK-based organisations, which in the context of transfers of personal data to countries outside the EU have always been exporters, will become importers of data originating from the EU. This is a serious concern because transfers of personal data from the EU to third countries are severely restricted. So a key UK Government objective from day one has been to ensure that the UK is regarded as an adequate jurisdiction, which would allow unconstrained transfers of personal data from the EU. But will it be?
Tag Archives: EU General Data Protection Regulation
California Consumer Privacy Act: The Challenge Ahead — Key Terms in the CCPA
Words matter. Nowhere is this truer than in legislation, where word choices—often the product of long debate and imperfect compromise—determine the scope and impact of a law. Legislative history can speak volumes about those word choices, and the unique legislative history of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) only highlights the importance of understanding the terms used in the act. We thus focus here on discussing some of the CCPA’s key definitional terms.
GDPR Italian Implementing Decree Has Been Published
On September 4, the Legislative Decree no. 101 of August 10, 2018 for the national implementation of General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 was published in the Official Journal. The Decree integrates the provisions of the GDPR, that were previously left to the autonomy of the Member States and will enter into force on September 19, 2018.
Data Protection in the Event of a “No Deal Brexit”
The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (‘DDCMS’) has today released guidance on “Data protection if there’s no Brexit deal”, which is part of its preparations for if there is a “no deal” scenario when the Article 50 negotiating period comes to an end on 29 March 2019. The UK will become a “third country” on its exit from the European Union, which means that unhindered cross-border transfers of data will no longer automatically be able to take place between the UK and the EU. The guidance confirms that, given the “unprecedented alignment” between the UK and EU data protection regimes, the UK would continue to allow transfers of data from the UK to the EU at the point of exit. However, the Commission has made it clear that they would not make a decision on adequacy until the UK is a third country (that is, after 29 March 2018), and its procedure for reaching a decision typically lasts several months.
California Consumer Privacy Act: The Challenge Ahead — Introduction to Hogan Lovells’ Blog Series
We have heard the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) called many things since its enactment on June 28, 2018. Our experience to date has confirmed the compliance challenge ahead for organizations that engage with the residents of the world’s fifth-largest economy. We will explore the ramifications for businesses of this seminal legislation in this multi-part series, “The Challenge Ahead” authored by members of Hogan Lovells’ CCPA team. In this first installment, we describe recent activity to enact so-called “technical” amendments to the CCPA.
Who Will Get the First Big GDPR Fine and How to Avoid It?
At the Privacy Laws and Business’ International Conference, Eduardo Ustaran evaluated the sorts of activities likely to prompt regulators into exercising their increased fining powers under the GDPR. In this post, we provide links to both a video of his presentation at the conference as well as a detailed report about his presentation.
Why the GDPR is Good News for Business
Not many people will remember this but in 2008, Richard Thomas, the former UK Information Commissioner caused a fairly dramatic stir in the privacy world – at least among policy makers and fellow regulators – by unashamedly proclaiming that European data protection law was outdated and ineffective to address the technological and privacy challenges of the 21st century. At first, this was regarded by some as an embarrassing admission that could not possibly be right. But only two years later, the European Commission started a process of wholesale legislative reform that culminated with the adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation in April 2016. We all know by now that the GDPR is the result of many political and regulatory compromises caused by the precarious balance created by the various forces at play – the unstoppable development of technology, the increasing value of data, the urgent need to protect people’s digital lives, and the prosperity of Europe and the rest of the work.