Westlaw Publishes Akin Gump Alert on Alleged GDPR Violations
Contact:
Westlaw has published “Non-profit activists’ strategic pursuit of alleged GDPR violations spurs compliance developments,” an article by Akin Gump cybersecurity, privacy and data protection co-leaders Michelle Reed and Natasha Kohne and health care and life sciences senior counsel Jo-Ellyn Sakowitz Klein and associate Rachel Kurzweil.
The article, which originated in a client alert, discusses two recent developments regarding compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) arising in complaints filed by NOYB – European Center for Digital Rights, an Austrian nonprofit organization.
This organization filed complaints with the Austrian Data Protection Authority against a number of Internet giants, including YouTube, Netflix, Spotify and Apple Music, for GDPR violations. Following which, the French Data Protection Agency (CNIL) fined Google €50 million for GDPR violations responding to complaints by NOYB and a French digital rights group.
In the article, the authors discuss both cases, laying out the NOYB complaints and arguments in the Austrian and French matters, which centered around companies’ collection of consumer data and failure to “properly respond to consumers’ requests for data that the Companies collected about consumers” (in the Austrian case) and companies’ failure to “disclose to users how their personal information is collected and processed, by forcing customers to agree to their privacy terms or not use their services, and by not having a valid legal basis to process the personal data of the users of its services…” (in the French case).
The authors conclude that the “recent CNIL fine is indicative of the powerful result that can flow from activists’ pursuit of alleged GDPR violations” and add that these developments “highlight the need for companies to quickly and effectively respond to consumer requests for information and to evaluate how they disseminate information about processing activities and obtain user consent, in particular.”
To read the Westlaw article, please click here.
People Mentioned in This News
