Cybersecurity
Europe Puts Multibillion-Euro Price Tag on Its Privacy
- EU negotiators back tougher data protection rules for bloc
- Firms risk fines as high as 4% of global sales for violations
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Companies from banks to U.S. technology giants risk fines of as much as 4 percent of their global annual sales if they fail to protect their customers’ data, as the European Union agreed to beef up the powers of privacy regulators across the 28-nation bloc.
EU negotiators sealed the historic deal almost four years after the first proposals to overhaul the bloc’s 1995 data-protection law. The rules are expected to take effect from 2018, once Tuesday’s agreement at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France, is rubber-stamped by lawmakers and EU governments.