Firms left in lurch over EU reforms

The European Commission is threatening to leave direct, digital and data marketing firms in the lurch after it revealed that it will be not publishing guidelines on the EU data reforms until member state ministers have finalised the details.
The decision follows talks earlier this week on the final wording of the draft EU General Data Protection Regulation and has been blasted by one data protection lawyer as “unrealistic”.
Vĕra Jourová, European Commissioner for justice, consumers and gender equality (pictured), said in a statement: “The Regulation cannot contain all the cases which might occur. The guidelines, will be important for fine tuning and equalisation of imposing of penalties, because we are introducing quite strict penalties after we agree on them. We have a lot of work to prepare the European public and European businesses for this to be well implemented and understood.”
Although welcoming the much-needed clarity on areas such as the definition of personal data, unambiguous consent, the right to be forgotten and the role of data processors, Pinsent Masons data protection lawyer Lucy Jenkinson said this will give companies little time to adapt.
“Precise and concrete guidelines to be developed by the European Commission will be helpful, however they must also take into account the realities for businesses of achieving compliance,” she said.