The European Commission is updating its data protection laws, creating the first pan-European rules to govern electronic information. While that’s good news for most European businesses since it will streamline compliance, it’s bad news for U.S. companies, many of which will have to comply with European data laws for the first time.
The proposed European Union regulations differ from U.S. laws in several areas, and penalties for non-compliance are harsh: Companies that run afoul of the rules can be fined up to 2 percent of their global revenues, regardless of how much business they do in Europe.
