Lokke Moerel, ICT partner at De Brauw defends her dissertation 'Binding Corporate Rules' at Tilburg University 

Lokke Moerel, ICT partner at De Brauw has defended her dissertation 'Binding Corporate Rules' on 19 September at Tilburg University.

In the absence of adequate national legislation in Europe, multinationals are increasingly implementing worldwide privacy codes, 'Binding Corporate Rules', to facilitate international transfer of personal data. Moerel advocates international recognition of this new form of self-regulation.

Moerel explains: "In this digital age, multinationals process more and more of their employees' and customers' personal data. In my dissertation I note that multinationals increasingly integrate these data into central IT systems which can be accessed from the company's different locations. These central systems are managed by outsourcing suppliers, who in turn process the data from offshore locations such as India. As a result, employee and customer data are transferred continuously all over the world".

In her dissertation Lokke Moerel argues that through cloud computing these data are located everywhere and can no longer be linked to a specific location, whereas legislation is linked to the territory of an individual state. This has resulted in a worldwide jungle of national privacy laws, which largely overlap and sometimes even conflict, making it virtually impossible for multinationals to comply with all of these laws. Rather than trying to comply with national laws, multinationals introduce a global privacy policy implementing uniform rules worldwide for the processing of personal data. These Binding Corporate Rules have been recognised by data privacy regulators in the various European member states. Moerel has investigated – especially in the US and other APEC countries - what is needed to achieve recognition of this form of worldwide self-regulation. Her conclusion is that Binding Corporate Rules can offer suitable protection, and she suggests a number of improvements to the European legislators with a view to achieving acceptance of Binding Corporate Rules as an international instrument.

infoFor more information please contact Lokke Moerel.