A New Legal Framework for the Protection of Personal Data

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31.05.2021 10:52

A New Legal Framework for the Protection of Personal Data

The recent, runaway development of modern technologies is to a varying degree reflected in newly adopted legislation. In comparison to Czech legislation, the European Union laws seem to be rather flexible in this regard. One of the areas in which EU legislation seeks to respond to modern technologies is the area of personal data protection. After a number of years during which a debate on the possible shape of the new legal framework for the protection of personal data took place within the EU institutions and between them and the Member States, the European Union authorities approved a new legal framework for the protection of personal data at the beginning of 2016, in the center of which stands the general regulation on the protection of personal data.

This new, relatively very detailed and comprehensive piece of legislation will come into effect in the first half of 2018, and consequently the existing directives on the protection of personal data and the existing Act no. 101/2000 Coll., on protection of personal data and amending some laws, will be revoked. Thereafter, protection of personal data will be governed exclusively by the General Regulation on the Protection of Personal Data and its implementing regulations.

Since there is still sufficient time to adequately prepare before the new piece of legislation comes into effect, it may be useful to learn about the key elements of this new legislation which include, inter alia, a stipulation about uniform sanctions for infringements across Member States of the European Union, for which purpose a uniform level of maximum penalties has been introduced amounting to € 10 million, or € 20 million, or 4% of the annual turnover, whichever is higher.

We are of course ready to help you draft the necessary documents and introduce related measures. Likewise, we are prepared to introduce to you the basic outline of the new legislative framework for the protection of personal data in the form of a general regulation on the protection of personal data, to highlight the fundamental differences between the new and the current legislation, and to identify new responsibilities and tasks that the legal framework for the protection of personal data imposes on its stakeholders.