The recently adopted act and the GDPR constitute new legal framework of personal data protection

Act No. 110/2019 Coll., on Personal Data Processing
Effective from: 24 April 2019

As largely anticipated, the national legislation relevant to the GDPR was finally adopted. The existing Act No. 101/2000 Coll., on the personal data protection, was abolished and the area of the personal data protection is now regulated by the directly applicable regulation and its new national adaptation act.

The national adaptation act sets out the exemptions and the deviations from the GDPR provisions. The national legislator has decreased the age limit of a child to give consent to the processing of personal data in relation to information technologies to 15 years of age (the GDPR requires 16 years of age). Further, the adaptation Act specifies the conditions of the personal data processing for the purposes of scientific or historical research, the statistical purposes and for the journalistic purposes and the purposes of academic, artistic or literary expression. The Office for Personal Data Protection has the power to impose sanctions and penalties up to CZK 5 000 000, resp. CZK 10 000 000 in case of a breach relevant to the detection of crimes.

The GDPR and the new adaptation act are the essential elements of further expected changes regarding the personal data protection, especially in the area of the labour law and the IT law.