General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

On 2 December 2024, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) adopted its draft guidelines on Article 48 GDPR (the “Draft Guidelines”). The Draft Guidelines are intended to provide guidance on the GDPR requirements applicable to private companies in the EU that receive requests or binding demands for personal data from public authorities (e.g., law enforcement or national security agencies, as well as other regulators) located outside the EU.Continue Reading EDPB adopts draft guidelines on requirements when responding to requests from non-EU public authorities

On 6 March 2024, the ICO issued a call for views on so-called “Consent or pay” models, where a user of a service has the option to consent to processing of their data for one or more purposes (typically targeted advertising), or pay a (higher) fee to access the service without their data being processed for those purposes. This is sometimes referred to as “pay or okay”.

The ICO has provided an “initial view” of these models, stating that UK data protection law does not outright prohibit them. It also sets out factors to consider when implementing these models and welcomes the views of publishers, advertisers, intermediaries, civil society, academia and other interested stakeholders. The consultation is open until 17 April 2024.Continue Reading UK ICO Launches a Consultation on “Consent or Pay” Business Models

On February 13, 2024, the European Data Protection Board (“EDPB”) adopted an opinion on the notion of “main establishment” of a controller in the context of Article 4(16)(a) of GDPR.  The opinion aims to clarify (i) the relevant conditions for the determination of whether a controller has a “main establishment” in the EU, for controllers that have more than one establishment in the EU; and (ii) the application of the so-called “one-stop-shop” mechanism in these scenarios.  

We provide below an overview of the EDPB’s opinion.Continue Reading EDPB Clarifies the Notion of “Main Establishment” under the GDPR

In December 2023, the Dutch SA fined a credit card company €150,000 for failure to perform a proper data protection impact assessment (“DPIA”) in accordance with Art. 35 GDPR for its “identification and verification process”.Continue Reading Dutch SA Sanctions Credit Card Company for Failure to Perform Data Protection Impact Assessment

On January 15, 2024, the European Commission released its report on the first review of the functioning of the existing eleven adequacy decisions adopted under the pre-GDPR framework.  

The Commission concluded that personal data transferred from the European Economic Area to any of Andorra, Argentina, Canada (for PIPEDA-regulated entities), the Faroe Islands, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Israel, Jersey, New Zealand, Switzerland and Uruguay continue to receive an adequate level of protection.Continue Reading European Commission Retains Adequacy Decisions for Data Transfers to Eleven Countries

Earlier this year, the UK’s privacy and competition regulators (the ICO and CMA) issued a joint paper setting out their concerns and expectations in the field of dark patterns – techniques designed to mislead or deceive users of online services – which the regulators refer to as “harmful online choice architectures”. As we’ve previously noted, dark patterns are an area of increasing focus of regulators, and the joint paper reflects the growing interplay between privacy and competition laws – a trend we expect to see continue in 2024.Continue Reading UK Regulators Target Dark Patterns

On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (“DPF”). The decision, which took effect on the day of its adoption, concludes that the United States ensures an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the EEA to companies certified to the DPF. This blog post summarizes the key findings of the decision, what organizations wishing to certify to the DPF need to do and the process for certifying, as well as the impact on other transfer mechanisms such as the standard contractual clauses (“SCCs”), and on transfers from the UK and Switzerland.Continue Reading European Commission Adopts Adequacy Decision on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework

On July 4, 2023, the European Commission published its proposal for a regulation laying down additional procedural rules relating to the enforcement of the GDPR.  The aim of the proposed Regulation is to clarify and harmonize the procedural rules that apply when EU supervisory authorities investigate complaint-based and ex officio cross-border cases (i.e., where the relevant processing conducted by a controller or processor  spans multiple Member States, resulting in a “lead” authority and additional “concerned” authorities).  If adopted, the Regulation will sit alongside the GDPR, complementing the existing cooperation and consistency mechanisms set forth in Chapter VII.Continue Reading European Commission Proposes GDPR Enforcement Procedure Regulation

On April 17, 2023, the Italian Supervisory Authority (“Garante”) published its decision against a company operating digital marketing services finding several GDPR violations, including the use of so-called “dark-patterns” to obtain users’ consent.  The Garante imposed a fine of 300.000 EUR. 

We provide below a brief overview of the Garante’s key findings.Continue Reading Italian Garante Fines Digital Marketing Company Over Use of Dark Patterns

On May 4, 2023, the Court of Justice of the European Union (‘CJEU’) decided, in case C-487/21, that the right to obtain a ‘copy’ of personal data means that the data subject must be provided with a faithful and intelligible reproduction of all personal data.  This can also include documents or extracts from databases containing personal data, where it would be necessary to ensure that the personal data is intelligible, as per Article 15(3) GDPR.Continue Reading CJEU Clarifies the Right to Obtain a Copy of Personal Data under the GDPR