Tag: New Data Protection Act

New Data Protection Act in Austria

31. August 2017

In regards to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), coming into force on 25th May 2018, the Austrian Parliament has passed the new Data Protection Act.

The GDPR is directly applicable which means that the GDPR will regulate the data protection within the European Union, without the need for any transposing act of the member states. Nevertheless the GDPR contains a certain amount of opening clauses. Opening clauses enable the countries to complete the law. Moreover, in some cases, the member states are obliged to provide specifications. Because of this reasons the member states have to revise the existing Data Protection Law. The first country with renewed law was Germany and now Austria follows.

The first draft of the new act was published on 12th May 2017. After evaluating the results of the consultation the new Data Protection Act was published in the federal law gazette on 31st July 2017.

It is noticeable that the Austrian parliament has been reticent with deviations from the GDPR which benefits the harmonization of data protection within the European Union.