The Commission, which is preparing to launch a consumer awareness campaign for the new regime, has revealed that only Germany and Austria have so far passed measures needed to enshrine the new EU-wide regulation into their own legislation.
In the UK, GDPR will be added to the statute book through the UK Data Protection Bill, but this is still making its way through the House of Lords and is not expected to become law until May.
Brussels is also urging member states to ensure relevant bodies are equipped with the necessary resources, adding that it is providing €1.7 million to fund data protection authorities ahead of the introduction of GDPR.
Under the UK Bill, it has been proposed that the Information Commissioner's Office will have a new three-tier funding regime. The minimum fee will rise by 57% to £55 and the maximum will soar 100% to £1,000, with an extra £20 direct marketing “top-up” fee.
In addition to providing funds for data protection authorities, the Commission has also set aside a further €2 million to assist small and medium-sized businesses in ensuring they are compliant with the new rules.
On Wednesday, it introduced a new online tool to help companies prepare for GDPR.
Meanwhile, even former Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof has waded into the GDPR debate. Chairing a panel on the subject during BETT 2018 at ExCeL London this week, Geldof admitted that he had never even heard of the new legislation until asked to take part in the event.
But having overseen to the debate, Geldof concluded that GDPR risked putting “an intolerable burden on schools to manage new technologies and social ways of behaving”.
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