On December 13, 2011, the Ukrainian National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce held a round table discussion on "Practical aspects of the legislation on personal data protection." The event brought together practitioners in the field of personal data protection, government representatives and interested members of the business community, for whom this issue is particularly relevant.

Presentations by Alexei Mervinskyi, the Head of the State Service of Ukraine on protection of personal data, and by Vladimir Kozak, Deputy Head resonated particularly well with the audience since they contained an update on the progress and plans of the State Service for 2012, information on the audits conducted and planned to check on the owners of personal data databases, while also addressing problems regarding personal data registration.

Vasil Kisil & Partners Law Firm was represented by its leading associate Vladyslav Podolyak. Mr. Podolyak raised the issue of collaboration between the State Service of Ukraine on protection of personal data and the courts of general jurisdiction. We emphasize that it is the responsibility of the courts, not the Civil Service, to impose fines for violation of legislation on protection of personal data. According to Vladimir Kozak, key joint meetings of the Civil Service and the State Judicial Administration of Ukraine have already taken place, but further work is on the way in this regard. Fines (within maximum and minimum penalty range) will depend on the nature of the violation.

It is public knowledge that starting January 1, 2012 the administrative responsibility shall be enforced for violation of the rights of personal data subjects, for failure to complete state registration of personal data and for familiar to comply with the requirements imposed by the Civil Service of Ukraine regarding the protection of personal data to eliminate violations with possible fines of $ 1700-17000 USD.

Next year criminal penalties for the illegal handling of confidential information, which includes personal data, shall be more sever with maximum penalty being imprisonment up to five years.

As a reminder, VKP’s lawyers Oksana Voynarovska and Vladyslav Podolyak have recently conducted a series of seminars on the protection of personal data, including the one in cooperation with the European Business Association. In the near future Mrs. Voynarovska and Mr. Podolyak are planning to hold seminar at the Edinburgh Business School on December 20, 2011.

If you have any questions, please send them to pr@vkp.kiev.ua - we are always happy to continue the dialogue.

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For more details please contact Iryna Ryslyaeva,

PR Manager

Tel.: +380 44 581 7777

E-mail: pr@vkp.kiev.ua

About the Firm

Established in 1992, Vasil Kisil & Partners is a Ukrainian law firm that delivers integrated legal advice in banking & finance, mergers & acquisitions, capital markets, antitrust, competition and trade, dispute resolution, tax law, energy and natural resources law, intellectual property law, labor and employment law, real estate and construction law, as well as PPP, concessions and infrastructure law.

VKP serves international and domestic companies, as well as private individuals, dealing with banking and financial industry sectors, agriculture, chemical, construction, energy, hi-tech, general commodities, insurance, IT, media, metallurgy, pharmaceutical, real estate, shipbuilding, telecommunications, trading, transport, and other industries and economy sectors.

The firm`s clients include such world-known companies as Alpcot Agro, Africa-Israel Group, Astellas Pharma, BASF, Bayer Consumer, BNP Paribas, British American Tobacco, Central European Media Enterprises, Coca Cola, Credit Agricole Group, Danone, Dell Inc., Du Pont, Energy Standard Group, Eurosport, Google, IKB Deutsche Industriebank , LG Electronics, Leroy Merlin Ukraine, Lukoil, Metso Automation Oy, Moody’s, Mott MacDonald Limited, NCH Capital, Novacke chemicke zavody, Opel, Philips, Pioneer, Red Bull, Russian Standard Bank, St. Sophia Homes, SEB AB, SEB Group, Swedbank AB, Seven Hills, Shell, Standard Charted Bank, Tchibo, UniCredit Group, Vanco International / Vanco Energy, Volkswagen, VympelCom.