Regulatory Updates

Country

GDPR Fines

COVID India Update

The deadline has been extended for certain Board meeting matters to be handled through video conferencing or other audio-visual means until September 30, 2020

In India, it is compulsory to hold four board meetings a year, with at least one meeting every quarter. Some of the items that need Board approval that normally needs to be passed in a physical meeting include:

• The approval of the annual financial statements;
• The approval of the Board’s report;
• The approval of the prospectus;
• the Audit Committee meetings for consideration of financial statement including consolidated financial statement, if any, to be approved by the Board under Section 134(3);
• Approval of any matter relating to amalgamation, merger, demerger, acquisition and takeover.

Given the COVID situation and restrictions on physical movements in India, the government has issued a notification dated June 23, 2020. The notification extends the deadline for permitting the above Board meeting/ Audit Committee meetings from June 30, 2020 to September 30, 2020 and allows it to be done through video conferencing or other audio-visual means.

Netherlands

The Dutch Data Protection Authority has penalized a company with a fine of EUR 725,000 for violations of Article 9 (1) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) for processing biometric data of its employees without their explicit consent.

Spain

The Spanish Data Protection Authority fined Activos Balagares, a fine of EUR 15,000 for violation of Article 5(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation.

Sweden

The Swedish data protection authority (“Datainspektionen”) has fined Google LLC for EUR 7 million for violation of GDPR regulations with respect to “right to request delisting"

The Swedish data protection authority (“Datainspektionen”) has fined the National Government Service Centre for SEK 200,000 (Approx. EUR 18,700) for failure to notify about a personal data breach to the Data Protection Authority as well as affected parties in due time.