If you organise events in Europe or events globally with European participants, then you need to know about the new General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that come into effect in May 2018. “The fines for non-compliance are massive and don’t forget that your competitors can report you because non-compliance equates to unfair competition.” That was the warning from David Chalmers, senior marketing director of Cvent Europe and the man who has taken ownership of the challenge offered to his company by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force in less than four months’ time. He said some fines can be as high as Euros 20 million, or four per cent of the offenders’ turnover, whichever is the higher. Speaking at a seminar organised by the Event Management Association (EMA) this week, Chalmers explained that the new regulation stops being a directive and becomes an EU regulation because privacy is a human right. And, he said, the new regulation will:
Strengthen individual rights
Increase business accountability
Embed a privacy-centric focus
