Spotlight on pitfalls

The truth about privacy law

The CMA’s small but mighty advocacy team recently published a report on the pitfalls of the GDPR. For the uninitiated, the GDPR is the European law that governs all forms of privacy in – you got it – Europe.

Canada’s privacy law is currently under review and there are some voices calling for the main aspects of the GDPR to be incorporated into the new Canadian law. The CMA, through its diligence, has presented another perspective: While the GDPR has, in some ways, advanced privacy protection and awareness globally, it has proven to be much better in theory than in practice. Bottom line: not only is the GDPR not right for Canada, it has also created significant challenges in Europe. 

We didn’t have to look too far to make the point. And we didn’t have to commission our own independent research. We were able to find more than 30 studies that did that work for us. The conclusion is simple. Create our own legislation. In Canada, for Canada.

The report has already received lots of support. Not just in Canada, but overseas as well:

• “Thought the GDPR report was really, really strong. I posted it and it got quite a bit of traction. Glad to see it was getting out beyond Canada. Congrats to CMA, it was a great piece.”
• “Really thorough and comprehensive report.”
• “It’s great to have all the economic analyses in one place because it helps us keep track… From an economic perspective, there are legitimate criticisms to be made of the GDPR.”

You can access the full report: Privacy Law Pitfalls: Lessons learned from the European Union in English and French.