October

On June 22, 2016, the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (DPA) issued a short paper on certifications under Article 42 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR will become effective on May 25, 2018. This paper is part of a series of papers that the Bavarian DPA will be issuing periodically on specific topics of the GDPR to inform the public about what topics are being discussed within the DPA. The DPA emphasizes that these papers are non-binding. The GDPR allows DPAs to issue data protection certifications to companies. According to the Bavarian DPA, such certifications would allow companies to demonstrate that their data processing activities comply with the requirements of the GDPR, however, certified companies must still comply with the law and can be subject to supervision by DPAs. The Bavarian DPA believes that certification under the GDPR has great potential and can provide clarity as to whether data processing operations comply with legal requirements under data protection law.

"The EU-U.S. Privacy Shield register may now be open for business, and Europe's privacy regulators may have collectively (though grudgingly) agreed to assess its progress in a year rather than kick and scream about its flaws now, but at least one regulator is still itching for a fight.

Johannes Caspar, the Hamburg data protection authority, is keen to ask the Court of Justice of the European Union whether it thinks the Commission's decision to strike the data-transfer deal was valid. The ECJ, of course, was the court that declared Privacy Shield's predecessor, Safe Harbor, to have been an invalid ""adequacy decision."" Caspar is hoping that upcoming legal changes in Germany will make it possible for the country's DPAs to challenge adequacy decisions as soon as next year. It is by no means certain that the changes will make this possible, though."

The European court recently confirmed that job applicants must have a genuine interest in the role for which they are applying in order to be protected by the Equality Law.

In a recent German trial, the company involved rejected an applicant, who, in turn, filed a claim for age and sex discrimination. The claims were dismissed by the lower German courts, but on appeal, the Federal Labour Court explored the protection of those who apply for jobs in order to bring compensation claims. The company faces the difficulty of establishing that applicants have no genuine interest in the role.