Happy birthday GDPR – but where’s the e-Privacy Regulation?

So, we approach the GDPR’s first birthday. You know what’s nice for birthdays? Fines. Really big ones. According to an article in today’s Times (paywall), significant GDPR monetary penalties from the ICO are imminent, around the 1-year mark for our new data protection regime. The Irish DPC is apparently limbering up likewise. And it also announced its investigation into Google’s Ad Exchange this week, which could develop into a very significant foray into online ad tech. Continue reading

Grounds of appeal in Morrisons

Following my post confirming that the Supreme Court has granted permission in Various Claimants v Morrison Supermarket Plc, I have had quite a few email queries as to the scope of the grounds of appeal. To put you in the picture, permission has been granted on all grounds. In a nutshell, this means that the Supreme Court will be considering: Continue reading

CFA success fees abolished in privacy & defamation cases

So after many of months of GDPR-related anguish, finally some good news for data controllers: with effect from last Saturday (6th April), conditional fee agreement (CFA) success fees will no longer be recoverable from defendants in privacy or defamation proceedings, at least where the relevant CFA was entered into after 5 April.

The legislative story goes like this (deep breath!): Continue reading

Adtech, ePrivacy and the GDPR

Scarcely a week goes by without my saying to someone or other (clients, colleagues, my children round the dinner table): the GDPR is not an exhaustive regime – where applicable, you need to ensure compliance with ePrivacy laws as well. Especially when it comes to electronic marketing communications, cookies and related ad tech. This inevitably prompts the question: aren’t we supposed to be getting a new ePrivacy law? What’s the delay? Continue reading