PROTECCIóN DE DATOS EN EUROPA

Austria - A new law, which came into force on 29 April 2011, now imposes tougher sanctions against unsolicited telephone marketing. Penalties for breaching the law - which requires the prior consent of the recipients - were increased from €37,000 to €58,000.

Germany - A new employee data protection bill - currently being discussed in Parliament - is likely to enter into force later this year, and will make amendments to the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz - BDSG). If passed, the bill would cover, inter alia, compliance measures and internal investigations, monitoring of emails, internet traffic and telephone communications, and video surveillance. ''There will be a lot of work for data protection supervisors in Germany and [I hope] the new law is more elaborate than what it looks like at the moment'', said Ulrich Baumgartner, Partner at Osborne Clarke.

Greece - Law 3917/2011 - passed in February 2011 - amends Law 3471/2006 (DTL) regulating unsolicited communications for direct marketing purposes. The amendment will introduce an opt-out regime with respect to the use of automated calling machines with human intervention, and an opt-in regime for the use of automated calling systems without human intervention. Electronic communication service providers have until 1 September 2011 to activate a 'Do-not-call Registry'.

Norway - The Norwegian Parliament transposed the Data Retention Directive in April 2011, leading to changes in the e-Commerce Act and the Criminal Procedure Act. According to the implementing legislation, traffic data must be stored for six months - currently, such data cannot be retained at all. The changes are expected to enter into force in 2012.

Poland - The Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) was amended on 7 March 2011. Under the amendments, the General Inspector for the Protection of Personal Data (GIODO) may impose a second round of fines of up to €50,000, after imposing an initial single fine of up to €12,500 for failure to comply with a decision. A new criminal offence of blocking GIODO inspectors from carrying out their functions effectively during investigations was also introduced.

Sweden - Sweden will implement the e-Privacy Directive's cookie consent clause on 1 July 2011 - businesses from the industry, led by Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) Sweden, have commenced the drafting of a Code of Conduct and a new self-regulatory regime regarding the use of cookies, which is expected to be completed by 1 July 2011.