Ovum comments: MEPs voted for stronger safeguards for EU citizens’ personal data
March 12, 2014
Today, MEPs voted for stronger safeguards for EU citizens’ personal data that gets transferred to non-EU countries in a major overhaul of the EU’s data protection laws. Luca Schiavoni, regulation analyst at Ovum provides his view on this news:
“Today’s vote of the European Parliament on the draft Data Protection Regulation signals the clear intention to press ahead with the reform, despite all the delays and disagreements that had slowed down the process The Parliament has amended the draft to strengthen users’ protection in transfer of data outside the EU, which will have to be authorized by a national data protection authority and requires firms to inform the concerned person beforehand. This is now clearly becoming more of a sensitive issue, which is capturing the interest of citizens and firms concerned about the safety of their personal information, and may turn into a vote winner in the upcoming Parliamentary elections. It is therefore unsurprising that the EU Parliament has pressed ahead to tighten the grip on data transfer, even though the Regulation will not be finalized before the end of 2014.
“The Parliament has also shown to be aware of the importance of a robust set of fines, which will now be significantly higher than the EC’s initial proposal. They can now go up to €100 million, or 5% of a company’s annual worldwide turnover (whichever is greater) instead of €1 million, or 2% of the turnover initially proposed. Having significantly deterrent fines will be a key factor for the success of the new rules, since many firms whose business is across different geographies will often have to decide which rules they have to respect (e.g. whether to satisfy a request for data coming from the US, or refusing it to comply with EU regulation). However, it will be important to ensure that the fines are not disproportionate for small businesses, such as the flourishing tech start-ups on which European policymakers are relying to boost the EU’s economy. A phased introduction, or a more detailed differentiation in the set of fines, will be necessary in this respect.”