Penal provisions (S.91)
This act is slightly stringent about penalty in case of its breach and provides different quantum of punishment for different kind of breach. We shall discuss some breach it has provided for under the following heads-
- Any person collects, holds, communicates to third persons or uses personal information otherwise than in accordance with the provisions of Division II (collection of Personal Information), III (confidentiality of Personal Information) and IV (Access by person concerned) the penalty is $1,000 to $10,000 and for subsequent breach it is $10,000 to $20,000.
- For breach of S.17 a fine of $500 to $50,000 can be imposed and for a subsequent offence $10,000 to $100,000.
- Breach of S. 70, 70.1, 72, 78, 79 of this act, a fine of $600 to $12000 and for a subsequent offence $10,000 to $20,000.
- Any person hampers an inquiry or inspection by miscommunication then fine is $1000 to $10000 and for a subsequent offence fine is $2,000 to $20,000.
The above fines are mentioned under this act, since we already are aware that the modernization as regard to the legislative provisions of “Act Respecting The Protection of Personal Information In The Private Sector” is going on under Bill 64.
Bill 64 introduces administrative penalty which enable the Privacy Commission to impose a penalty of $50,000 in case of a natural person and $10,000,000 or 2% of the total worldwide turnover (refrence- https://www.dlapiper.com)
The above introduced administrative penalty has taken its essence from the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulations) under article 83 (4) & (5). In case the proposed introduction is adopted then this act will become the most stringent enactment.
Bill 64 also has introduced the quantum of $1000 as damages for the willful infringement of the provisions of the act.