Coming Soon, The GDPR Easter egg

By Remy Wilders

For those who have been fighting for privacy, the GDPR came as good news but for most companies this European regulation has rather been seen as a pain in the neck and maybe even as a threat.

But there may be some hidden good news for companies outside of EU. An Easter egg of sorts…

To understand the opportunity, we first need to see what problem Europe needed to address.

The GDPR is the first European law which can entail fines for companies outside of Europe. The United States have been playing at this game for a long time with their embargo related laws or even their tax laws. But the United States are just that: United whereas the “United States of Europe” find it very difficult to agree on almost any topic.

If a company, outside of the United States, decides to go and sell goods to Iran for instance, the embargo law kicks in and the US shuts out that company from doing any further business with the United States except if they pay a massive fine. This works really well.

Now with the GDPR Europe has two problems. The first is that shutting out a company from doing business with the whole of Europe would need a next to impossible agreement and would be difficult to enforce. The second difficulty is that GDPR is meant to apply to tiny companies and not only to huge ones such as Google. So, the question is: how ever can Europe make the smaller players be part of the overall effort?

It is important to understand that the point of the GDPR is not to “make money” with the fines but to bring about a real shift in the way companies process and respect personal data. Hence it mattered to the regulators that the small companies play the game.

And this is where an Easter egg, to sweeten the deal, has been hidden. Article 27 states an “obligation” which could in fact be a hidden gift.

Article 27 says “Where Article 3(2) applies, the controller or the processor shall designate in writing a representative in the Union”.

What this means is that, from now on, if a non-EU company wants to do business, or simply interact, with European citizens, they have the obligation to name a representative in Europe.

The idea is obviously to simplify communication with the company, if needed. Solving the language issue is, in itself, a big plus.

But it also opens up a great opportunity because Europe is actually saying that any company abroad is entitled to have an official ambassador in Europe without needing to register offices or risking taxes for being in Europe. Any company can now officially reassure their clients and investors by displaying their presence in Europe.

Having a European representative costs next to nothing and authorizes a non-EU company to display their Representation address in Europe. It is a win-win situation both for Europe, which is anxious to protect the European citizens’ personal data, and for the non-EU company which has an official foot in Europe at hardly any cost at all.

This is unique and precious for non-EU companies as long as they choose reliable representatives and cash on to this opportunity.

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