New German Data Protection Act

The new German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz – the ‘’new BDSG”), which will replace the Federal Data Protection Act of 2003, was adopted by the German Federal Parliament on April 27th 2017. The new Act´s aim is to adapt the current German data protection law to the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation).

In a couple of weeks (probably on the May 12, 2017), the approval of the new BDSG by the German Federal Council is expected on plenary meeting. Once the new BDSG is adopted, it will become effective the same day as the GDPR.

In some respects, there are new BDSG requirements that are different from the GDPR. Among those, there are for instance such issues as: Data Protection Officer appointment, employee personal data processing, specific data processing requirements with respect to the video surveillance, scoring and creditworthiness and consumer credit.

For violations regarding exclusively the German law, the new BDSG imposes fines in amount up to 50, 000 EUR.