FAQs on the General Data Protection Regulation

On 14 April 2016, the European Parliament adopted the Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the Protection of Natural Persons with regard to the Processing of Personal Data and on the Free Movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (the General Data Protection Regulation, also refered to as the “GDPR” or as the “Regulation”).

Following is a first set of answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about how the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is expected to apply to biobanks – collections of human samples and associated health data – in the EU. The FAQs do not constitute legal advice and may be subject to change, as a result  of further analysis or when provisions of the GDPR are being implemented. This set of FAQs has been prepared by the BBMRI ERIC Common Services ELSI Task Force on the EU General Data Protection Regulation,  in Graz, April 2015 and was finalised on 1 May 2016. The current members of the Task Force are Jasper Bovenberg, Martin Boeckhout, Gauthier Chassang, Irene Schlünder, Olga Tzortzatou and Ruth Vella Falzon.

Link to FAQs