The proposals would grant consumers increasing rights to require providers to share access to their data directly with chosen third parties.
By Alain Traill and Gail Crawford
The UK government has released a consultation advocating the introduction of sweeping new requirements for service providers to share both consumer data (upon request) and data regarding their own products and services, with third parties. The proposals, released on 11 June 2019 by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in its Smart Data report and consultation, are indicative of a wider drive toward requiring companies to free up access to the data they hold. The drivers behind this include a desire to increase competition, foster the growth of data-driven services, and improve consumer choice.
The proposals follow the introduction of a range of sector-specific initiatives in the UK and is part of a concerted government focus on digital strategy, as evidenced in its recent white paper on Regulation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, as well as the National Data Strategy introduced last year. Continue Reading
The UK’s data protection supervisory authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), published guidance on 3 July 2019 to provide greater clarity to organisations grappling with how the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to cookies and similar technologies. The new guidance makes it clear that under the GDPR, consents cannot be the default or blind setting, and consents cannot be bundled, as had been the common “wait and see” practice among many online businesses and sites. Organisations subject to the ICO jurisdiction will want to pay immediate attention to this guidance, including some helpful, pragmatic tips.
On 8 July 2019, the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) announced a notice of intent to fine British Airways £183.39 million (about US$230 million) for violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The proposed fine is the largest to date under the GDPR, and equals 1.5% of British Airways’ 2017 global turnover, according to the 
On 6 February 2019, the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in conjunction with the UAE Minister of Health and Prevention (the Minister) issued a new law on the use of information and communications technology (ICT) in health fields in the UAE. Federal Law No. 2 of 2019 (the Law) entered into effect in May 2019 and will likely affect the activities of a number of entities operating in the healthcare sector in the UAE, including healthcare service providers, life sciences companies, cloud service providers, healthcare IT systems suppliers, and medical insurance providers. 
On May 1, 2019, the Russian President signed draft law No. 608767-7, commonly referred to as the Russian Internet Law, or “RuNet Law” (Federal Law No. 90-FZ “On Amending Federal Law ‘On Communications’ and Federal Law ‘On Information, Information Technology and Information Protection’”). The majority of RuNet Law amendments will come into effect on November 1, 2019.
The ICO is required by s123 of the Data Protection Act 2018 to prepare a code of practice which contains guidance on standards of age-appropriate design of relevant information society services likely to be accessed by children. On 15 April, the ICO published a draft code of practice on age-appropriate design for online services (the Code). A copy of the Code can be found 
On 8 April 2019, the Home Office and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) published an “Online Harms White Paper”, proposing a new compliance and enforcement regime intended to combat online harms. The regime is designed to force online platforms to move away from self-regulation and sets out a legal framework to tackle users’ illegal and socially harmful activity. Although the regime appears to target larger social media platforms, the proposals technically extend to all organisations that provide online platforms allowing user interaction or user-generated content (not limited to social media companies or even ‘service providers’ in the traditional sense) and set out a potentially onerous and punitive compliance and enforcement regime for a broad set of online providers. 
Four French advertising technology companies that received a warning in 2018 from the French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) have all implemented the regulator’s required changes. The recent closure of the cases highlights opportunities for businesses at all layers of the adtech value chain to address emerging compliance challenges.
In January, the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) issued an opinion (Opinion) on the interplay between the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Clinical Trials Regulation (CTR), which: (1) confirms that consent under the GDPR and CTR are different concepts; and (2) sets out the EDPB’s recommendations on the appropriate legal basis required for processing personal data in connection with clinical trials conducted in the EEA (which is unlikely to be consent).
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