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“The record fine just imposed on Facebook parent company Meta should not obscure the fact that the company knowingly violated the GDPR for five years and monetised without restriction. The proceedings, on the other hand, were only initiated in August 2020 and dragged on due to Ireland’s disputes with the EU. For example, the Irish authority wanted to impose a lesser penalty on Facebook, but was overruled by the European data protection commissioners. It is precisely these differences that the EU must resolve with its announced legislative initiative and ensure accelerated procedures." Jan Oetjen, CEO, GMX

“Close the data paradise Ireland. The GDPR has created a legal disparity in Europe. While supervisory authorities in Germany and other EU states impose high requirements on data processing and impose significant fines in their jurisdiction, the GAFA companies (Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon) with their European headquarters in Ireland still lead a largely unchallenged life. This leaves us with the absurd situation that the US companies, which generate over 80 percent of Europe’s digital business with the largest data processing, are monitored by a small authority in Dublin, which does not meet the demands of the GDPR either in terms of capacity or monitoring. In February, the EU Commission finally reacted: A legislative initiative aims to improve cooperation between national supervisory authorities in cross-border cases. It is doubtful whether this will be enough to close the data paradise of Ireland and finally create a uniform application of the GDPR for Europe. The record fine just imposed on Facebook parent company Meta should not obscure the fact that the company knowingly violated the GDPR for five years and monetised without restriction. The proceedings, on the other hand, were only initiated in August 2020 and dragged on due to Ireland’s disputes with the EU. For example, the Irish authority wanted to impose a lesser penalty on Facebook, but was overruled by the European data protection commissioners. It is precisely these differences that the EU must resolve with its announced legislative initiative and ensure accelerated procedures."

Jan’s comments on the UK’s DPDI
Jan Oetjen, CEO of GMX and mail.com: “Without question, the GDPR is far from perfect and the new UK DPDI Bill is trying to improve some areas of the GDPR, e.g. by introducing risk categories for data instead of treating almost all data the same as the GDPR does. But the proposed changes to the data protection legislation bear a significant risk of jeopardising the current adequacy status that was achieved between the UK and the EU. Instead of creating new barriers for digital businesses, the UK government should now focus on more effective and modern solutions for data protection, such as delegated authority. If consumers are given the possibility to delegate their consents to an identity provider they trust, they can centrally control all personal data and the permissions they grant to various companies and organizations. Such solution will strengthen the competitiveness of smaller businesses, especially of the local digital alternatives to the US giants. While it will help to significantly reduce the costs of data protection implementation, it will at the same time allow UK business to drive innovation through compliant and effective use of data.”