MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: Antonio Ghio, Paul Gonzi and Rebecca Iversen, Fenech & Fenech Advocates
• the Business Register and Information Shar - ing Regulations (SL 546.02), on the establish - ment of a business registry and, inter alia, the rule that all undertakings listed thereon (including self-employed persons) are consid - ered as business undertakings; • the Co-ordination of Government Inspections Act, Chapter 568 of the Laws of Malta, which provides, inter alia, that the sharing of data and the maintenance of common databases and repositories of information, as provided for by this Act to facilitate reductions in the burden of inspections on entities and indi - viduals, shall be regarded as activities that are carried out in the public interest for the purposes of the Data Protection Act; • the Gaming Commercial Communications Regulations (SL 583.09), on the limitation of the processing of personal data, unsolicited commercial communications and commercial communications to self-excluded players by authorised persons offering licensable games or service providers collaborating with author - ised persons; and • the Passenger Name Record (Data) Act, Chapter 584 of the Laws of Malta, which transposes Directive (EU) 2016/681 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention, detec - tion, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime. The Constitution of Malta enshrines the right to privacy of one’s home and property and the right to freedom of expression as fundamental human rights. The European Convention Act (Chapter 319 of the Laws of Malta) incorporates the Euro - pean Convention on Human Rights into Maltese law, making it directly enforceable in Maltese courts. This includes the right to privacy (Article 8).
Moreover, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which acknowledges the right to priva - cy and data protection, is applicable to national authorities when implementing EU law. Maltese legislation also aligns with the Conven - tion of the Council of Europe for the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Process - ing of Personal Data (CETS No 108), ratified by Malta in February 2003. Multilateral Legislative Implementation Further to the enactment of CAP 586 and SL 586.01 to implement the GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive, respectively, Maltese law has enacted the following in order to implement the applica - ble EU legislation. • SL 586.08 (enacted in 2018) is the domestic legislation in Malta that implements Direc - tive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parlia - ment and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by com - petent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prose - cution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data. • SL 586.12 implements Commission Imple - menting Decision (EU) 2021/914 of 4 June 2021 on standard contractual clauses for the transfer of personal data to third countries pursuant to the GDPR. In relation to the implementation of applicable multinational obligations in general, any appli - cable Regulations or guidance issued by the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) would also be applicable to Malta, as Malta is an EU country.
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