Following the vote of 12 March, ECTAA expresses however its serious concerns regarding the adopted provision, according to which a Data Protection Officer (DPO) will have to be designated if the processing is carried out by a legal person and relates to more than 5,000 data subjects in any consecutive 12-month period.
The EU Parliament unanimously confirmed its strong support to the European Commission‘s data protection reform by adopting the reports of MEPs Jan-Philipp Albrecht and Dimitrios Droutsas (LIBE Committee) as the official position of the EU Parliament.
ECTAA welcomes the vote of the EU Parliament, which is the next milestone of the reform and will fasten the negotiations with the Council of the European Union. The new Regulation and Directive will allow setting the legal framework and will regulate the protection to EU citizens of their personal data.
Following the vote of 12 March, ECTAA expresses however its serious concerns regarding the adopted provision, according to which a Data Protection Officer (DPO) will have to be designated if the processing is carried out by a legal person and relates to more than 5,000 data subjects in any consecutive 12-month period. The Parliament went against the Commission’s original proposal of exempting SMEs with less than 250 employees from the obligation of designating a DPO, if their core business is not data processing.
Such proposal will significantly increase the administrative burden and financial costs for SMEs.
ECTAA wishes to remind that SMEs account for more than 80% of all Travel Agencies and Tour Operators within the EU. It is therefore necessary to protect SMEs’ interests in the current difficult financial context and stimulate their economic activities.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
