The last amendment to the Czech Republic’s national data protection legislation guarantees full alignment with the European data privacy laws, including the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. Read about these latest updates here.
Starting from 1 January 2022, the Czech Republic’s national data protection legislation is aligned with the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, thanks to the amendments to the Act 127/2005 Coll. on Electronic Communications. It was the last amendment of the Czech national legislation needed for a full alignment with the European data privacy laws and the national laws of their European counterparts.
Previously, the misalignments of the privacy laws resulted in confusion for the Czech online businesses, but now the rules have been simplified and easy to follow.
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Because the Czech Republic is a member state of the European Union, which means that aside from their national laws, the EU regulations are also directly applicable to Czech citizens and businesses.
In terms of data protection, the following laws apply:
All three laws co-exist and are enforced at the same time. Every business operating from the Czech Republic or handling personal data of Czech customers has to comply with all of them simultaneously.
Fortunately, the rules arising from each of them are similar now and compliance with one of the laws will likely make you compliant with at least some of the requirements of the other laws.
Until 1 January 2022, Czech website owners could only rely on the opt-out principle in the use of cookies. That meant that the national law allowed Czech businesses to use cookies if users had not clearly protested the collection and the processing of their personal data.
If you‘re familiar with the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive requirements, you know that the requirements of the Czech national law were not aligned with them.
That’s not the case anymore. Now all laws applicable to Czech businesses clearly state the need to obtain the users’ explicit consent for the use of cookies and other tracking technologies.
In sum, the amendments to the law confirm that the consent needs to be:
Aside from the updates on the use of cookies, the amendments introduced important changes regarding contacting users for direct marketing purposes.
Until 1 January 2022, businesses could rely on the opt-out mechanism, i.e. they could contact customers using their personal data until the customer opted out. Now, they have to comply with the opt-in principle, which means contacting only the customers who have given consent to be contacted.
Given the GDPR requirements and their direct applicability in every single EU member-state, the amendments to the Czech law do not bring anything substantially new. Businesses had to comply with the GDPR cookie requirements already. They also had to ask for consent before using personal data for direct marketing.
Therefore, businesses that complied with the GDPR will have no issues complying with the Czech cookie law as well. On the other hand, Those that have not been compliant with the GDPR still have a lot of work to do.
Similar to the GDPR, the Czech cookie law amendments require you to obtain consent for the use of cookies. You can do so by serving your website visitors with a Czech Cookie Law-compliant cookie banner that will collect and record their consent. Remember, the consent must be: freely given, specific, informed, unambiguous, and easily withdrawn. Take a look at cookie banner best practices.
In addition, you are required to keep records of all the obtained consents.
Secure Privacy can provide you with a ready-made SaaS for compliant consent collection according to the Czech Cookie Law and the GDPR.
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