NEWS31 January 2020
UK – With the UK leaving the European Union today ( 31st January), the Information Commissioner’s Office has warned that GDPR will continue to apply during the transition period.
Organisations processing personal data should continue to follow existing ICO guidance over the course of 2020, as it will be ‘business as usual for data protection’, the regulator said in a statement.
It is not yet clear what changes will be made to the data protection landscape after the Brexit transition period is over at the end of December 2020 as this will depend on negotiations between now and the end of the year.
However, the ICO guidance states: “The default position is the same as for a no-deal Brexit: the GDPR will be brought into UK law as the ‘UK GDPR’, but there may be time for further developments about how we deal with particular issues such as UK-EU transfers.”
UK businesses offering goods or services – or monitoring the behaviour of individuals – in the European Economic Area (EEA), do not need to appoint a European representative during the transition period, but this may be required from the end of the transition period.
Further guidance can be found on the ICO website and at the Market Research Society’s Brexit hub.