UK ICO Issues Largest Ever GDPR Privacy Fine of £183m ($228m)
Today we saw the ICO issue a notice of its intention to fine British Airways £183.39m for infringements of the GDPR – a record fine and the largest seen in the UK and the EU. The proposed fine relates to a cyber incident which BA notified to the ICO (as … Read More
GDPR: One Year On
The 25th of May, 2019 marked a year since the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) came into force. For most in privacy, involvement with the GDPR has been ongoing for well over this year, but on the first anniversary of the GDPR we take an opportunity to … Read More
Dutch Supervisory Authority Opines on Use of Cookie Walls
Recently, the Dutch Supervisory Authority (the “Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens” or “Dutch SA”) has taken the position that the use of so-called “cookie walls,” whereby website access is made conditional upon the provision of consent to tracking cookies, is not compliant with the EU General Data Protection Regulation … Read More
The Belgian Data Protection Authority Appoints First Commissioner and Directors
On 29 March 2019, the Belgian House of Representatives appointed a new Data Protection Commissioner and four directors to the executive committee of the Belgian Data Protection Authority (‘DPA’).
These are the first appointments to be made to the DPA since it replaced the previous Belgian Privacy Commission … Read More
French CNIL Fines Google €50m for Violation of GDPR’s Transparency and Consent Requirements
On January 21, 2019, the French Supervisory Authority (the “Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés” or “CNIL”) issued Google’s U.S. headquarters (“Google”) with a fine of €50m for failure to comply with the EU General Data Protection Regulation’s (“GDPR”) fundamental principles … Read More
EU Commission Decision Reconciles Data Protection Rules with the Need for Effective Trade Defence and Trade Policy Investigations
On December 17, 2018, European Commission Decision (EU) 2018/1996 (the ‘Decision’) was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. The Decision lays down rules designed to reconcile the rights of individuals respecting their personal data, with the need for effective trade defence and trade policy investigations … Read More
EDPB Issues Long-Awaited Guidance on Territorial Scope of the GDPR
On November 23, 2018, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) published draft guidelines seeking to clarify the territorial scope of the GDPR (“Guidelines”). The Guidelines have been eagerly awaited, particularly by controllers and processors outside of the EU looking for confirmation as to whether or not the EU data protection … Read More
EU Parliament Adopts Blockchain Resolution
On October 3, 2018, the European Parliament passed its long awaited resolution on distributed ledger technologies and blockchains (the “Blockchain Resolution”). The Blockchain Resolution was adopted to protect and empower EU citizens and businesses with respect to the specific issues that arise in relation to the blockchain or “distributed ledger” … Read More
New Belgian Data Protection Act Takes Effect
On September 5, 2018, the new Belgian Data Protection Act implementing the GDPR (the Belgian Act) was published and entered into force. Despite the GDPR being an EU regulation that directly applies to all EU Member States, several provisions of the GDPR explicitly allow, and even require, Member States … Read More
Dutch Supervisory Authority Investigates GDPR Compliance in the Healthcare Sector
On 21 August 2018, the Dutch Supervisor Authority announced that it had conducted an investigation into the designation of a Data Protection Officer (DPO) under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by 91 hospitals and 33 healthcare insurers in the Netherlands. Two hospitals had not yet communicated the contact details … Read More