Blog Image
Profile Image Verifile
August 4 2015

Substantially Increased Sanctioning Powers of the Dutch Data Protection Authority

A newly passed bill in the Netherlands has increased the fining power of the Dutch Data Protection Authority (DPA) to up to EUR 810,000 or 10% of an organization 's annual worldwide turnover. The Dutch legislature passed the bill amending the Dutch Data Protection Act (Wet bescherming persoonsgegevens, (WBP)). New fines may be imposed for non-compliance with various obligations of the WBP. The DPA will have the discretion to decide whether a situation justifies either a fixed fine or a fine relative to a company 's revenue. The possibility of issuing a fine relative to a company 's turnover is necessary for the DPA to have an effective enforcement tool in place when dealing with (very) large international organizations, for which the threat of a EUR 810,000 fine would not be sufficiently dissuasive. Currently, the DPA is only authorized to impose an administrative fine of EUR 4,500 for failure to register data processing with the DPA.