The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply within exactly 6 months! Are you ready?

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply from May 25, 2018. As we are now only six months away from such date, organizations should already move towards compliance as many of the obligations imposed by the GDPR will take time to integrate.

Pursuant to our newsletter dated May 2017, we wish to remind you that the GDPR will apply within exactly 6 months from now, and therefore any work toward compliancy should already be well underway.

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), adopted in April 2016, will apply as of May 25, 2018 and will replace the antiquated EU data protection regime consisting of the 1995 Data Protection Directive, and the 28 national data protection laws of the EU. The goal of the GDPR is to ensure stronger enforcement of the privacy protection rules and to set global data protection standards.

As detailed in our previous newsletter, the GDPR will apply to organizations (controllers or processors) established in the EU that process personal data in the context of their activities (regardless of whether or not the processing of personal data itself takes place in the EU), as well as to organizations (controllers or processors) that are not established in the EU, that process personal data of data subjects who are in the EU, where the processing activities are related to: (a) the offering of goods or services to such data subjects in the EU; or (b) the monitoring of the data subject’s behavior as far as their behavior takes place within the EU. Therefore, in many cases, the GDPR applies to Israeli organizations, even those that have no physical presence in the EU.

Organizations are required to be fully compliant with the GDPR no later than May 25, 2018. However, organizations should become familiar with the provisions of the GDPR and begin planning for implementation beforehand, since once the GDPR is enforced, violations of non-compliance could result in very high penalties.

GKH’s IP and Privacy Group is available to assist clients prepare for the impact of GDPR on their business.

***

For further information regarding this update, please contact Adv. Ella Tevet, Partner, Head of IP and Privacy Practice, at ellat@gkh-law.com or 03-6074588.

Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg & Co. (GKH), is one of the leading law firms in Israel, with some 150 attorneys. GKH specializes, both in Israel and abroad, in various fields of law including Mergers and Acquisitions, Capital Markets, Technology, Banking, Project Finance, Litigation, Antitrust and Competition, Energy and Infrastructure, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, Labor Law and Tax.

This alert is prepared as an informational service to clients and colleagues of Gross, Kleinhendler, Hodak, Halevy, Greenberg & Co. (GKH) and the information presented is not intended to provide legal opinions or advice. Readers should seek professional legal advice regarding the matters about which they are particularly concerned.