On 11 February 2021, the Abu Dhabi Global Market (“ADGM”), Abu Dhabi’s financial free zone, enacted the new Data Protection Regulations 2021 (the “Regulations”), replacing the Data Protection Regulations 2015 in their entirety and bringing the ADGM regime closer to the European Union’s data protection regime under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

Our alert memo, published at the end of 2020 following the ADGM’s opening of a public consultation period on the draft Data Protection Regulations 2020 (the “Draft Regulations”), provides an overview of the key features of the Draft Regulations, areas of overlap with the GDPR, as well as certain proposed departures from the GDPR that will need to be monitored by organisations doing business in both the ADGM and the European Union.

The Regulations are applicable to those processing personal data where a controller or processor has been established in the ADGM, regardless of whether the processing actually takes place in the ADGM or not.

We set out below an update to our alert memo, highlighting the few notable additions/amendments to the Draft Regulations as compared with the final Regulations published on 11 February 2021.Continue Reading ADGM enacts new Data protection Regulations 2021