Under a European Court of justice ruling, the European Commission has won the right to make governments apply criminal sanctions on companies that break environmental law. It has said such sanctions could soon be applied to other areas such as data protection and intellectual property.
Data protection experts see this as a positive move but question whether it will have a significant impact on UK companies. The commission has been investigating the UK's efforts to enforce data protection for the past year but has yet to come to a decision.
"We have sanctions in place already," said Stephen Groom, partner at legal firm Osborne Clarke. "I don't see the ruling making any major difference and any changes could be some way off. But the Government needs to take its data protection obligations more seriously."
The Information Commissioner said the court's decision could allow the European Commission to harmonise penalties for data protection.
"But we do not expect any immediate developments while discussions continue between the Commission and member states," he said.
Others agree that the ruling could spur the Government to allocate some much-needed resources to the Information Commissioner's Office, which has been criticised for its lack of enforcement powers.
"There is a woeful lack of data protection enforcement in the UK," says Groom. "Any resources the Commissioner's Office can get to help people take the laws more seriously is encouraging."
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