A Significant Step Forward For Personal Data Protection In The European Union

EU Focus on Privacy Affects Global Companies, Including Those in the U.S.

The EU Commission recently published a draft Regulation on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (the "draft Regulation").

The draft Regulation aims at replacing EU Directive 95/46 on the same subject matter. Contrary to the Directive, which was implemented by EU Member States into their national law with a certain room for maneuver, the draft Regulation contains rules that will be directly applicable in a uniform way in the 27 EU Member States (plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein). Under this harmonized set of rules, enterprises will no longer have to deal, as in the current regime, with diverging national legislative regimes and authorities.