The GDPR came into effect almost a year ago on the 25 May 2018. As the most significant reform of data protection law in Europe for over 20 years, the legislation raised expectations of a cultural shift in attitude to data privacy. A year on from the fanfare of implementation, this bulletin looks at key … Read more
On 15 April 2019, the Supreme Court granted supermarket chain Morrisons permission to appeal against the Court of Appeal ruling that it was vicariously liable for its employee’s misuse of data in the first successful UK class action for a data breach. Permission was granted on all grounds of appeal and the Supreme Court will … Read more
Last week the Personal Data Protection Office (“UODO“) in Poland issued a €220,000 fine to a digital marketing company for breaching its obligations under Article 14 of the GDPR (i.e. to provide a privacy notice to individuals). The decision has some important practical implications for organisations, including that: the collection of publicly-available information from the … Read more
The revelations surrounding Cambridge Analytica’s use of personal data and involvement with the Vote Leave campaign raised serious questions about the use of personal data in the EU referendum campaign and more widely by technology companies in general. The subsequent investigation by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee (the “DCMS Select Committee“) has … Read more
The German competition authority, the Federal Cartel Office (“FCO“) last week announced the results of its investigation into Facebook for a novel abuse of dominance involving consent for its data collection. Whilst the full decision is not yet public, the FCO has published a background paper here. In short, the FCO found that Facebook had … Read more
On 23 January 2019, the EU Commission adopted a decision confirming the adequacy of Japanese data protection laws for the purpose of transferring personal data from the EU to Japan in compliance with the international data transfer restrictions set out in Chapter V of the GDPR. Read more
Last week, it was announced that during December 2018 almost one thousand German public figures, including journalists and a number of prominent politicians including the Chancellor and President, were the subject of one of Germany’s largest data breaches. The leaked data included contacts, private chats, credit card details and other financial details of figures from … Read more
Earlier this year, the French Competition Authority (“FCA“) published the results of its 2-year inquiry into the online advertising sector, identifying competition concerns in the sector. The inquiry concluded that two major global players hold “overwhelming” market power and generated almost 90% of the online advertising industry’s growth in 2017. The head of the FCA, … Read more
