Article written by Haim Ravia, Dotan Hammer and Adi Shoval
The Belgian data protection authority (“DPA”) has signed a cooperation agreement with the Belgian National Domain Names Registrar that allows the DPA to act to delist Belgian domain names that host websites suspected of serious violations of the GDPR.
Under the cooperation agreement between the DPA and the Belgian National Domain Names Registrar, the DPA may notify the Registrar if an Internet domain operates a website that is suspected of violating the GDPR. The Registrar will then send a notice to the registrant-owner of the domain name requiring them to remedy the violation within two weeks, or their rights in the domain name will be suspended. During this period, the Registrar will block users’ access to the website and divert user traffic from the suspected website to a warning page. If the violations are not rectified after two weeks, the DPA may initiate proceedings to completely remove the domain name from the registry.
The notification and removal procedure came into effect on December 1, 2020.
CLICK HERE to read the Belgium Data Protection Authority and National Domain Names Registrar cooperation agreement (in French).
