Del Canto Chambers provides a range of data protection advisory services tailored to suit a company’s needs. From advising on data protection compliance processes, assisting in the response to data subject access requests, to ad hoc advice on particular data and privacy issues. We can also provide representative services in Europe and the United Kingdom. Our experience in Intellectual Property lends itself to advising on the overlap between data protection compliance and rights that companies may have in data, such as database rights, copyright and trade secrets.

The General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (‘GDPR’) came into force in May 2018 and introduced a stricter regime than that which had previously existed. It gives data supervisory authorities the ability to levy substantial fines on companies for infringements: up to 4% of annual global turnover or £17.5 million (€20 million), whichever is the greater.

The United Kingdom (UK) has now left the European Union. Whilst the GDPR has been incorporated into UK law through the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, there will inevitably be changes in data protection compliance over time. The Trade and Cooperation Agreement includes a 6-month reprieve on data transfers to the UK whilst the European Commission considers the UK’s application for adequacy. Depending on the outcome, businesses may need to re-evaluate the international flows of their data to make sure they are legally valid.