- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Neil Hodge2021-01-13T19:24:00
Any European Union data protection authority should be allowed to pursue legal action against Big Tech firms over privacy issues, according to an opinion from the advocate general of the region’s top court.
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French data privacy watchdog CNIL again sidestepped the GDPR in fining Google and Facebook a combined €210 million (U.S. $237 million) for making it too difficult for users to refuse cookies when accessing their websites.
The EU’s top court ruled any of the bloc’s national data protection authorities can pursue a privacy complaint against Facebook or any other Big Tech firm and not just the supervisory authority where the company has its European headquarters.
Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon and European Data Protection Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski are among those who believe the one-stop shop provision of the GDPR needs to be reformed for the long term.
It has been four years since the European Union’s flagship data privacy legislation came into force, but concerns are already being raised about whether the General Data Protection Regulation is being outpaced by technological developments and their use of data.
So far, Europe’s wide-reaching data privacy rules have seemingly failed to curb Big Tech firms’ use and abuse of citizens’ personal data. As a result, some EU data regulators are pursuing their own investigations—often through other legislation.
Belgian Data Protection Authority head David Stevens and Member of European Parliament Axel Voss discussed ways the General Data Protection Regulation could be improved for the future during a keynote at CW’s virtual Europe event.
