Read all posts written by Bart Van den Brande:
The European Commission has imposed a 7,8 million euro fine to Valve, owner of the online PC gaming platform “Steam”, and five video game distributors for violating European geoblocking rules. Valve and the affected distributors restricted cross-border sales of certain video games based on the geographic location of consumers, which is exactly what is prohibited …
2020 was a turbulent year for the entire world for obvious reasons, but also specifically when it comes to GDPR the year did not go unnoticed. Anyone who has followed our blog in the past year has undoubtedly noticed that many companies throughout Europe have been fined, sometimes very high. Google, Amazon, Marriott, Ticketmaster, H&M, …
Just before the holiday season, on December 15, EC Vice President Margrethe Vestager announced the first drafts of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. These are 2 new European regulations that together form the Digital Service Package and that should ensure more and better regulation of online platforms in the foreseeable future. …
Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and its countless derivatives have been steadily on the rise for years and we have come to a point where they simply cannot be ignored in our society. Cryptos are here to stay. However, in most EU member states, legislation has not followed on this development at all in recent years, …
Earlier this week, a document (albeit internal and confidential) became public, in which the Belgian Data Protection Authority, in the context of an investigation following a complaint, is examining the Transparency and Consent Framework of iab Europe in a particularly critical way. The GBA is of the opinion that TCF, which is the standard in …
The Austrian Max Schrems has once again been succesful in one of the many privacy lawsuits that he has regularly conducted over the past years. The consequences are significant this time. After the “Safe Harbor” system had already been brought down, the “Privacy Shield” has now also been brought to an end by Schrems (on …
Caution is advised when you like a seemingly “funny” Facebook post about someone else or a negative review about a company or webshop. The Swiss Supreme Court ruled that you could be punished if the content turns out to be slanderous or insulting. So not only the posting of such content is punishable, but also …
The European Commission has recently published an extensive Flagship Report in which the possibilities and opportunities, but also the (legal) challenges and consequences of blockchain and distributed ledger technology and of smart contracts are extensively investigated. We summarize the main points of the report and summarize what smart contracts are and why your lawyer should …
The European Court of Justice confirmed in a judgment of 1 October 2019 that the use of cookies always requires the prior free and informed consent of the data subject and that this consent cannot be demonstrated by a prechecked check box. Ask consent for the use of cookies or not? The Belgian “cookie law” …
(Entretien avec Bart Van den Brande, Sirius Legal, paru préalablement dans Momentum, le magazine de l’association belge des intermédiaires en services bancaires et assurances BZB-Fedafin). Le RGPD impose des règles strictes en matière de protection des données à caractère personnel et requiert une solide organisation administrative. Si nos membres croulent sous ces nouvelles obligations, le …