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On June 4, 2021, the European Commission adopted two new sets of standard contractual clauses (SCCs): one for data transfers from data controllers to data processors and one for data transfers from data exporters to data importers in the United States and other third countries. These new clauses update and replace the SCCs adopted in 2001, 2004, and 2010 that many employers currently use to legally transfer human resources (HR) data for employees based in the European Union (EU).

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and EU supervisory authorities have reported that they have received a large number of complaints during the first six months following the effective date of the GDPR. For example, the EDPB reported that it had received more than 42,000 complaints since May 25, 2018. The French Supervisory Authority (CNIL) reported a 20 percent increase in complaints filed during the first six months the GDPR was effective compared to the same period in 2017. Similarly, the Irish Supervisory Authority reported a 50 percent increase in data breach reports and a 65 percent increase in data protection complaints over the same period. The Irish Data Protection Commissioner also stated that several investigations of multijurisdictional complaints against large companies are being completed and that she expects major GDPR fines to be issued in 2019.

Article 35 of the GDPR provides that a data protection impact assessment (DPIA) must be performed for data processing that “is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.” DPIAs must contain (1) a description of the processing operation along with the purpose of the processing and, where applicable, the legitimate interest for the processing; (2) an assessment of the necessity and proportionality of the processing operation in relation to the purpose; (3) an assessment of the risks to the rights and freedoms of the data subjects; and (4) the measures to be taken to mitigate the risks.

Although the GDPR was intended to provide a uniform set of data protection requirements across the EU, the GDPR contains several provisions, known as “opening clauses,” that expressly permit individual EU countries to implement additional and/or stricter requirements for certain types of data that employers typically process.

Much has happened since the European Union (EU) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018. Many EU countries have enacted national legislation to implement and expand the requirements of the GDPR, while other developments have directly affected employers and created new obligations regarding the collection and processing of human resources (HR) data.

On April 19, 2018, the Article 29 Working Party (Working Party), which is comprised of representatives from the data protection authorities in each of the 28 European Union (EU) member states, issued a position paper stating that all employers of EU employees are required to prepare and maintain records of processing activities relating to human resources data pursuant to Article 30 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

On March 27, 2018, Helen Dixon, the data protection commissioner for Ireland, outlined the enforcement priorities of the Irish data protection authority (DPA) for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) during the International Association of Privacy Professionals Global Privacy Summit in Washington, D.C. The Irish DPA has been ramping up its compliance capabilities for the GDPR and will undoubtedly serve as the lead DPA for GDPR enforcement for numerous U.S. companies that are headquartered or have locations in Ireland.