New Exemptions Reduce Compliance Burden for Multinationals in China

The new provisions under China’s Personal Information Protection Law no longer require global companies to enter a Standard Contract or file a Transfer Impact Assessment with the government when transferring HR data from China, under certain conditions.

This is positive news for multinational companies who were required to complete a Standard Contract for the transfer of HR data under the draft of the legislation. New provisions aim to balance data protection with business needs. 

The new provisions substantially reduce the burden for companies transferring HR data, though do not completely absolve the organization of all compliance requirements. 

Key changes include:

• Subsidiaries of multinationals will no longer be required to enter a Standard Contract when transferring HR data from China provided it is essential to cross-border HR management and they conform to internal labor rules or collective agreements. 
  
  
• Companies will no longer be required to file a Transfer Impact Assessment with the government however, they will still be required to complete the Assessment under the conditions of the law. 
  
  
• However, companies will still be required to notify employees that personal information may be transferred across borders and obtain their consent to do so.

Actions you can take: 

• Review existing data transfer policies and make modifications to take advantage of the relaxed provisions. 
  
  
• Review employee consents, handbooks and employment contract templates to ensure that all necessary provisions on data transfer have been specified. 
  
  
• Ensure employee handbooks, which provide the basis for compliant HR data transfer, have been correctly adopted through consultation processes.