The Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 regarding the Protection of Personal Data ('the Law') became effective on 2 January 2022, and it is the UAE's first federally applicable, General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679) ('GDPR') style data protection law. The Law follows key international data protection principles and best practices, such as those found within the GDPR, and marks a positive step towards greater data protection harmonisation with international standards that is a necessity in today's interconnected age, which is characterised by cross border data flows on an international level. In part two of this series on the Law, Andrew Fawcett and Darya Ghasemzadeh, from Al Tamimi & Company, discuss some of the data subject rights under the Law, as well as its provisions on the role of a data protection officer ('DPO') and cross-border data transfers.

As part of the UAE's comprehensive 'Year of the 50^th' legislative reform¹, which either amends or enacts over 40 further laws with the aim of boosting the economic competitiveness of the UAE, the UAE Cabinet ('the Cabinet') issued, on 20 September 2021, its awaited Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 regarding the Protection of Personal Data ('the Law'). Marked as one of the first projects of its legislative reform, the Law will come into effect and be published in the Official Gazette² on 2 January 2022 as outlined in Article 31 of the Law, kicking off the transition period for organisations. This Insight article aims to provide a breakdown of the key obligations under the Law, with accompanying analysis on the impact of the Law for key stakeholders in the UAE from Dale Waterman, Managing Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Breakwater Solutions.