Resources

Client Alerts, News Articles, Blog Posts, & Multimedia

Everything you need to know about BMD and the industry.

CLIENT ALERT: The European Union's New Data Privacy Law Goes Into Effect

Client Alert
June 5, 2018

On May 25, 2018, the European Union’s (“the EU”) new data privacy law went into effect.[1]   The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) concerns the processing of personal data that can be searched according to specified criteria such as geographical scope. 

Who it affects

The GDPR applies to all organizations that maintain offices or store data in the EU.  It also applies to many of the core organizations on the web.  For instance, it applies to social media, apartment rental, e-commerce, and internet search sites.  If your website conducts business in the EU, then the GDPR will apply.  Additional factors that would require a company to be GDPR compliant include sales or marketing to EU citizens, accepting any EU country’s currency, an EU country domain suffix, shipping services to the EU, or language translation or website in an EU language.

General global marketing does not require GDPR compliance.  If you use Google Adwords, and an EU citizen and resident visits your webpage as a result of this ad, the GDPR would not apply because there was no targeted interface with EU citizens.  The fact that an unsolicited EU citizen can and does visit your website does not require your organization to be GDPR compliant.  If you take no steps to interface with EU citizens, GDPR compliance is not required. 

Steps you should take now if your organization must be GDPR compliant

  • Provide customers and website visitors with detailed information on how data will be collected and used.
  • Redesign consent forms so that users must affirmatively agree to all uses of their data, and they can select those uses to which they agree and those to which they decline.
  • Create forms that distinguish between consent versus agreement to general terms and conditions.
  • Store customer preferences.
  • Audit data regularly, including where data is stored, why data is collected, how data is obtained, and how much duplication of data exists across multiple sites.
  • Audit your service providers’ data, and review their data procedures.
  • Understand whether your organization is a data processor or data controller. A processor processes personal data on behalf of a controller, whereas a controller determines the purpose and means of how data is processed.
  • Ask for explicit consent from consumers anytime you want to use data for ad targeting purposes.
  • Use “group data” that isn’t precise enough to target individual consumers.
  • Implement procedures and technology that ensures data can be permanently erased.
  • Appoint a Data Protection Officer who is knowledgeable about the GDPR to oversee compliance with respect to data collection, storage, and data processing.
  • Train all employees that have access to personal data on the GDPR requirements, including the requirement that internal data on employees must comply with the GDPR.
  • Prepare for data breaches by creating internal processes to detect, report, and investigate breaches in compliance with the GDPR.

What organizations should NOT do if you are required to be GDPR complaint

  • Rely on the E.U.-U.S. Privacy Shield to avoid compliance with the GDPR. Companies are still required to comply with the GDPR in order to receive Privacy Shield coverage, and the scope of the GDPR is much wider than the scope of the Privacy Shield.
  • Create exposure to the hefty penalties imposed by the GDPR for non-compliance. Companies are liable for 4% of their annual turnover or 20 million Euros, whichever is greater.
  • Risk reputational damage by receiving attention for non-compliance. The first companies to be penalized are more likely to receive significant media coverage for their noncompliance. 

There may be legal challenges to GDPR regarding applicability to non-EU companies 

This is a new, unprecedented law. The previous European data privacy law, the Data Protection Directive, was implemented in 1998, and was much narrower in scope.  The GDPR’s applicability and requirements are vast, and non-EU companies are likely to bring legal challenges in terms of its applicability to them. 

Who to contact with questions

Should you have any questions concerning the General Data Protection Regulation, please contact Matthew A. Heinle, Esq. (maheinle@bmdllc.com), who is a partner at Brennan, Manna & Diamond.

 

[1] General Data Protection Regulation, https://gdpr-info.eu/.

International Law
Client Alert

PPP Update: Loan Necessity Questionnaires

November 20, 2020On October 26, 2020, the Small Business Administration (“SBA”) published a notice in the Federal Register which foreshadowed the release of two new forms seeking information from for-profit and nonprofit organizations that received Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loans of $2 million or more. If approved, the SBA would use information from these forms to evaluate and determine whether economic uncertainty made a PPP loan request necessary.Client Alert

Exposure to COVID-19 Flow Chart

November 20, 2020Exposure to COVID-19 Flow ChartClient Alert

Lessons Learned: Five Tips for Buying or Selling a Practice

November 19, 2020If you are anticipating buying or selling a practice during the coming months, you are not alone. The healthcare industry is experiencing a wave of integration. In fact, it has been occurring for several years. Many transactional healthcare attorneys have negotiated and closed dozens of these transactions for clients. They have negotiated on behalf of the sellers in some cases and the buyers in others.Client Alert

Ramping Up – A Quick Guide to Pressing COVID-19 Employment Law Issues

November 19, 2020As the country continues to grapple with a global pandemic that now seems to be never-ending, businesses everywhere are waking up to realize that the calming of the COVID-19 employment issues over the summer has come to an end. As cases rise exponentially in all 50 states as we head into the winter months, the number of employment issues related to COVID-19 will also increase dramatically. For these reasons, it is important that we return to the employment law basics that were covered this prior spring, while highlighting the many lessons we have learned along the way. As COVID-19 matters and concerns continue to hinder the working environment of every business, it is important that you reference this review to guide you through these tough issues and questions.Client Alert

Your Workplace Under Biden

November 9, 2020This is my favorite recurring post – Predictions of How a New Administration Will Affect Your Workplace. Four years ago, we accurately called the emasculation of the 2016 proposed FLSA Overtime Rules (the salary exemption threshold was set at $35,568 in 2019, rather than $47,476 as proposed), we forecasted a conservative shift of the NLRB and its results (a roll-back of employee rights, social media policy evaluations, and joint employer rules), and we nailed the likelihood of multiple conservative appointments to the United States Supreme Court and its long-term effects (although I completely failed to predict that my ND classmate Amy Coney Barrett would fill the final vacancy during the Trump administration). This time, the L+E Practice of BMD has decided to make it a group effort at predicting what will happen, what probably happen, and what might happen under President Biden. As always, please save this in your important files and pull it out four (or eight) years from now to judge our accuracy.
Older posts
Newer posts