a special supplement to ACC Docket
Interesting in authoring for EMEA
Briefings Visit www.accdocket.
com/digitaldocket/ edguide.cfm, or
contact Associate Editor Joshua
Shields at j.shields@acc.com.
1 Top 10 — Europe’s Proposed General Data
Protection Regulation
By Mark Webber and Leonie Power
4 Uncertainty Abounds as Safe Harbor Collapses
By Nic Carter
Top 10 — Europe’s Proposed General
Data Protection Regulation
By Mark Webber ( mark.webber@fieldfisher.com) and Leonie Power ( leonie.power@fieldfisher.com), Field Fisher
This year, it has been increasingly
important for in-house counsel to keep
tabs on the progress of EU data protection and privacy reform. Europe’s Data
Protection Directive (95/46/EC) (the
Directive) is now more than 20 years
old and, for some time now, the EU’s
legislative bodies have been working
on a replacement. The overall intent is
to update, but also to introduce greater
harmonisation of these rules across EU
members states. In early June 2015, we
learned that the Council of the EU has
reached a “general approach” on Europe’s proposed General Data Protection Regulation (the Regulation), with
the twin aims of enhancing Europeans’
data protection rights and increasing
business opportunities in the Digital
Single Market.
The Regulation remains subject
to some significant negotiation and
is unlikely to come into force un-
til 2017–2018. If you represent any
business touching upon personal
data you should start considering the
future rules and what they mean for
your business, not least as there are
potentially some significant changes.
Importantly, the new rules will be
implemented by a legal act known as
a “Regulation” which, under EU rules,
would be “directly applicable” in all EU
members states. Effectively this means
the members states do not have to
implement the rules into their national
laws, and they cannot delay or vary the
rules coming into effect. The objective
is a far more consistent set of rules
applying to personal data across the
Europen Union.
Like many organizations, the Field-fisher privacy and information team is
monitoring the progress of the legislative changes, and we are cautious of
recommending any significant preparatory steps until the exact make-up
of the final rules are better understood
(hopefully in early 2016).
If the new law does get passed early
in 2016 — what are the top 10 issues
you should be aware of?