ARTICLE · 17 MAY 2018

New European Data Privacy Law Comes Into Force On May 25, 2018

Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP

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On May 25, 2018 the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation will come into force. The GDPR will create new requirements for Canadian companies that handle the personal information of European individuals.

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On May 25, 2018 the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force. The GDPR will create new requirements for Canadian companies that handle the personal information of European individuals. The GDPR also allows for heavy penalties to be imposed on organizations that fail to comply with this new regulatory regime. Based on this, Canadian companies who are involved in M&A transactions should be sure to determine whether the GDPR applies to a target and carefully consider the risks associated with non-compliance.

The GDPR regulates the processing by an individual, a company or an organisation of personal data relating to individuals in the EU. Similar to Canadian privacy law, "personal data" is constituted by any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual and "data processing" captures a wide range of manual and automatic operations performed on personal data. Importantly, the GDPR applies to activities

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