Tag: territorial scope

EDBP: Guidelines on the territorial scope of the GDPR

29. November 2018

As the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) announced, the board adopted new draft guidelines on the territorial scope of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The goal of the guidelines is to “provide a common interpretation of the territorial scope of the GDPR and provide further clarification on the application of the GDPR in various situations”. The territorial scope is laid down in Article 3 GDPR.

In the meantime, the EDPB published a version of the guidelines for public consultation.

The guidelines cover the following topics:

  • Application of the establishment criterion – Art 3 (1)
  • Application of the targeting criterion – Art 3 (2)
  • Processing in a place where Member State law applies by virtue of public international law
  • Representative of controllers or processors not established in the Union

The guidelines not only describe and clarify the regulatory content of Article 3 GDPR. It also provides various examples from a practical point of view in order to simplify the issue. For controllers and processors of personal data, it is of significant relevance to know whether one falls under the scope of the GDPR considering the legal and possible financial consequences.

Therefore, legal terms should be as clear as possible. Already on the first pages, an example for the necessity to clarify and specify the regulatory content of Art 3 GDPR can be found. The EDPB points out, that the notion “establishment” (unlike the notion “main establishment”, which is defined in Article 4 (16) GDPR) is not defined in Article 3 GDPR, resulting in an attempt to clarify the term.

Category: GDPR
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