The Reform of the EU Data Protection Framework: Outlining Key Changes and Assessing Their Fitness for a Data-Driven Economy

Abstract

This article analyzes the recent data protection reform of the European Union (EU). It introduces the drivers of the reform, in particular by looking at a few seminal judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU. Against this backdrop, the article highlights the key changes that the new General Data Protection Regulation brings about, assesses their implications, and seeks to situate them in the wider context of the digital economy and its governance, in particular with regard to the free cross-border flow of data.