GDPR
The impact of
GDPR
How the regulation will impact multinational
businesses and how they must prepare themselves
By Nigel Crockford, Business Development Manager, eSpida – www.espida.co.uk
Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to
prepare, you are preparing to fail.” This
statement will ring especially true for
multinational businesses in the coming
months as the GDPR comes into force
across the European Union. By uniting
28 different EU member state laws
under one data protection law, GDPR is
set to harmonise data protection laws
throughout the EU giving greater rights
to individuals.
Taking effect on 25 May 2018, every
business will need to alter their existing
procedures to ensure the correct
mechanisms to comply with GDPR are
in place. Failure to comply with the
regulation will result in costly penalties
of 4% of global annual turnover or €20
million, whichever value is greater.
Non-compliant businesses could also
be faced with bans or suspensions on
processing data, in addition to the risk of
class actions and criminal sanctions.
GDPR and multinationals
To enforce the regulation, each
country will have its own national data
protection act (DPA) regulator that will
oversee and manage any breaches.
Businesses operating in multiple EU
countries have frequently asked since
the announcement of GDPR