The countdown begins: in just under 20 days the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will enter into application. Jan Philipp Albrecht MEP (Greens/EFA, Germany) and the rapporteur on this dossier for the European Parliament provided an update on Thursday 3 May to the press about the implications of these new rules for businesses and the concerns they provoke.
The German MEP considers that the member states have failed to correctly inform the businesses and citizens about these new rules. Consequently, there is a certain “climate of panic” developing, which has, in particular, been fostered by the legal experts whose only economic interest is to foster these fears, he explained.
At the end of January, only Germany and Austria had taken the necessary measures to comply with the new rules, according to an announcement by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11946). This delay by the national governments is also causing the MEP concern, who considers that this will create even more uncertainty.
Businesses, particularly the SMEs, are also concerned about the uncertainties surrounding the implementation of the regulation at a national level (see EUROPE 11950). In all the different cases, it will be impossible to have 100% compliance, he explained. If companies have to set out an ambitious compliance objective, they are obviously going to make mistakes. This is why it is the role of the national data protection authorities to intervene, by providing advice, carrying out consultations and by delivering opinions and guidelines.
According to the MEP, Europeans can be “proud” of what they have achieved with this regulation, which, in addition to setting out protection standards in the European market, also provide standards at a global level.
He referred to the fact that Japan, for example, had adopted a law in line with the GDPR, even before the text was adopted and that similar trends had been observed in Argentina, Korea, Australia and even in New Zealand.
He said that although it is true that no one will be able to predict future scandals such as ‘Facebook/Cambridge Analytica’, with the new rules, companies will be aware that they could face heavy sanctions, in addition to damages to their reputation. Altogether, he considers that this will lead to greater respect for data protection in the EU. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)