Belgium has issued a new protocol to facilitate the approval
process for transfers of personal data outside the EU. Italy issued
new regulations governing direct marketing, and the Slovak Republic
has introduced a new data protection act—a busy few
months!
Belgium's new protocol on data transfers was issued on the
25th of June by the Ministry of Justice and the data protection
authority (the "Privacy Commission") and relates to
transfers based on the EU standard contractual clauses as well as
ad hoc contracts to transfer data. Prior to the new protocol, a
data controller could indicate that transfers were based on the EU
standard clauses when notifying the Privacy Commission. For any
other contracts related to transfers of data, Belgium had required
that they be approved by royal decree, which required that the
approval be signed by the King following advice from the Privacy
Commission. The new protocol requires that both the EU standard
clauses and other contracts
