Vol 16 (2019) - Issue 2

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Cross-Border Cooperation and Communication: How to Comply with Data Protection Rules in Matters of Insolvency and Restructuring

Synopsis

The topicality of the issue of data protection in the European insolvency context comes from two considerations. First, capital structures of companies in the 21st century will be starkly different from those of the past century. Once driven by hard assets, such as real estate, natural resources and machinery, modern businesses become highly dependent and valued on the basis of intangible assets, including data. It is a fact of life that the cross-border information flows have intensified, and these flows will keep expanding in the future, transcending national borders, most often electronically. Second, current European Insolvency Regulation (recast) strongly supports communication and cooperation in cross-border insolvency cases. It is accepted that efficient administration of the insolvency estate and the effective realisation of the total assets require balanced and coordinated approaches. With the entrance of the General Data Protection Regulation into force in May 2018, data protection has become a crucial factor to take into account, by both courts, insolvency practitioners, Member States and the European Commission. Against this background, we look at how the current EU insolvency regime deals with the pervasive and challenging matter of data protection.