On 25 and 28 May 2018, the French data protection authority (National Data Protection Commission - CNIL), received group complaints from the associations None Of Your Business (“NOYB”) and La Quadrature du Net (“LQDN”). LQDN was mandated by 10 000 people to refer the matter to the CNIL. In the two complaints, the associations reproach GOOGLE for not having a valid legal basis to process the personal data of the users of its services, particularly for ads personalization purposes.

The French authority ruled that Google had broken the law and fined the Technology giant with a 50 million euro financial penalty. In it's decision CNIL noted that “the violations are continuous breaches of the Regulation as they are still observed to date. It is not a one-off, time-limited, infringement.” That is, CNIL may impose further fines if Google does not address the problem.

CNIL was punishing Google for breaching the GDPR in France only: it is quite possible that the data protection authorities in other EU nations will now impose similar fines, which could, therefore, add up to considerably more than 50 million euros. The ruling is important for signaling that even the biggest non-EU companies must fully comply with the GDPR, or face significant and repeated fines.

Google has said that it will appeal.

Full article at: 

A €230 billion money laundering scandal put Danske Bank ahead of a record 22 other contenders to win the 2019 Corrupt Actor of the Year award from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project.

For the past seven years, the non-profit media organization has spotlighted the individual or institution that has done the most over the previous 12 months to advance organized criminal activity and corruption in the world.

“Danske Bank is a worthy recipient of this prize. It highlights the role of the criminal services industry in enabling international corruption and crime,” said OCCRP co-founder and editor Drew Sullivan. The term “criminal services” refers to the banks, law firms, registration agents, accountants, and others who help criminals and corrupt officials hide their assets and legitimize their operations.

“In the past 20 years, they’ve globalized organized crime and autocracy and helped everyone from Mexican drug cartels to Russian President Vladimir Putin to terrorists, autocrats, and almost every global threat,” he said. Sullivan was one of nine judges who made the final selection. Nominations were submitted by journalists and the public.

Read the Full article: 

Boards of directors at banks aren’t engaged enough with concerns about compliance with rules against money laundering and sanctions breaches despite a torrent of scandals and some record-breaking penalties, according to a survey by consulting firm AlixPartners.

Respondents represented about 370 banks. Forty-four percent of them said they didn’t provide, or weren’t aware if they provided, anti-money-laundering or sanctions training and regular briefings to their boards. The results, released Monday, marked a significant increase since last year, when 20% of respondents said they didn’t train their boards.

Full article at:

The European Commission is reportedly set to publish guidance for member states on how to manage ‘golden visas’ – resident permits that can be purchased by wealthy foreigners – amid growing concerns that they are being used by rich criminals to live and move around Europe easily, and that they also pose a high risk of money laundering.

The EC guidance is expected to include ‘necessary background checks’ for applicants across the bloc, as opposed to different requirements laid out by national laws.

Full article at: