The View_September 2018_F_Web

DOES THE EUROPEAN UNION GENERAL
DATA PROTECTION REGULATION
APPLY TO MY BUSINESS?
BY PAUL GORDON, SENIOR ASSOCIATE & JENNY PAGLIA, ASSOCIATE – WALLMANS LAWYERS
Australian businesses have to
comply with Australian regulations
and laws, but now they will have to
comply with the laws of foreign countries,
as the European Union (EU)’s General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has
come into effect with sweeping reach and
massive penalties for non-compliance.
So, should you be worried, does this
apply to your tourism business and, if so,
what do you need to do to comply with
the GDPR?
WHAT IS THE GDPR?
The GDPR is a law which seeks to
regulate the collection, processing and
dissemination of personal information
much in the same way the Privacy Act
seeks to do so in Australia. There are,
however, some significant differences
between the Privacy Act and the GDPR
which could cause significant difficulties for
Australian businesses. The law, which only
came into effect on 25 May 2018, applies
to any person or organisation (no matter
where in the world) that either:
1. Offer goods or services (whether free
or not) to data subjects in the EU; or
2. Monitor behaviour of data subjects to
the extent that behaviour takes place in
the EU.
WHO IS A DATA SUBJECT?
Whilst there are some questions about
whether or not a person who is not a
citizen of the EU is a ‘data subject’ when
they are in the EU, it is clear that EU
citizens in the EU are ‘data subjects’ for the
purposes of the GDPR.
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20 SATIC. SPRING 2018