In its recent decision of 11 June 2019 (docket no.: 4 U 760/19, available here), the Dresden Court of Appeals (Oberlandesgericht Dresden – Court of Appeals) had to decide on claims for damages under Article 82 GDPR with regard to minor violations of the GDPR. Background The defendant, the provider of a social network, had deleted a post from the plaintiff and suspended the plaintiff’s user account for three days. The plaintiff asserted, inter…

The Lower Saxony Data Protection Authority (Lower Saxony DPA) has audited 50 large and medium-sized organizations over the last couple of months regarding their implementation of the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and is currently finalising the audits. On 7 August 2019, the Lower Saxony DPA released the checklist that it used in assessing the organisations’ GDPR readiness (Checklist; available in German here). The Checklist In total, the Checklist consists of…

25 May 2019 was GDPR’s first birthday. Since its introduction, privacy and data protection issues have continued to dominate public debate and regulators have signalled that large fines for non-compliance are imminent. Now is an opportune time to review your privacy and data protection regimes. We have more regulatory guidance and case law than we did a year ago, and practices may well have bedded in within your organisation over the last year. With this…

The GDPR just had its first birthday. Before the GDPR became effective, organisations were anxious because the Regulation provides for heavy penalties. But was their anxiety justified? And as a first step, how have EU member states themselves implemented the GDPR? This article will provide short answers to these questions. Local implementation efforts Although the GDPR intended to unify data protection law within the EU, it permits EU member states to implement stricter local rules…

The GDPR is just around the corner and will be effective in less than three months – on 25 May 2018. Organizations are therefore in the midst of preparations to comply with the new Regulation in order to avoid the potentially high fines. Non-EU organizations have to assess whether the GDPR is applicable to them and whether they must prepare accordingly. The answer to this question is provided in Article 3 GDPR, which regulates the…

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into effect on May 25, 2018. It will attempt to standardize data protection law throughout the European Union. The GDPR will not be fully harmonized since the law has more than 70 opening clauses that will leave room for the EU Member States’ legislators to implement (stricter, less strict, or more detailed) rules. Reed Smith, along with partner law firms from every EU Member State, has drafted…