Last week, we reported that the Council of Ministers accelerated the timetable for passage of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).  The European Parliament followed suit and approved the GDPR this morning.

As a result, the GDPR is now officially adopted and will become the law of the land in the EU.  The GDPR will be published either this month or next in the Official Journal of the European Union.  Twenty days after its publication, it will enter into force – i.e. either in May or June 2016.  As soon as the GDPR enters into force, its two-year clock for bringing business operations into compliance will begin to run.