Belgian advertisers launch transparency charter on GDPR

With GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) coming into force on 25 May 2018, UBA Belgium published a transparency charter to provide Belgian advertisers with more clarity on the complex and different interpretations of this upcoming data protection law.

The charter includes the following precepts:

1. Companies have a duty to deal with personal data in a transparent way.


2. Consumers have the right to have control over their personal data acquired by companies.


3. Companies undertake to strictly comply with a number of principles:

• keep only necessary and relevant data;


• do not store and process 'sensitive' data, unless necessary;


• keep personal data for a limited period of time;


• ensure that personal data are accurate and up-to-date;


• ensure that these data are always processed in a secure manner.

4. Companies have a duty to request permission for the storage and processing of children’s personal data, unless in exceptional cases provided by the legislator.


5. If companies adhere to the above, they have the right to process personal data for direct marketing purposes and to provide a correct service to their customers. They then have a legitimate interest in collecting personal data in a legal manner.

UBA’s transparency charter is a voluntary initiative and emphasises on aspects of GDPR that are important to marketers with regards to their relationship with consumers.

Aside from the charter, the association has also set up the GDPR Line, a platform for UBA members to ask for free first-line advice regarding the new data protection legislation.

For more information, please contact Chris.