Study shows Brexit’s data compliance could cost £1.6 billion to UK businesses

According to TechCrunch, the assessment of the economic impacts if the U.K. is deemed a third country under EU data rules has been carried out by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) think tank and UCL’s European Institute research hub. The analysis estimates the total cost for U.K. businesses could be between £1 billion and £1.6 billion. The study indicates that these costs stem “from the additional compliance obligations – such as setting up standard contractual clauses (SCCs) – on companies that want to continue transferring data from the EU to the UK”. Euractiv reports that if the UK ratifies a post-Brexit trade agreement with the EU by the end of 2020, a data adequacy decision will still be required from the European Commission for cross-border data flows to continue.