Sotheby’s International Realty is a company owned brokerage of Realogy’s NRT holding company. The firm uses Rezora for digital marketing and they have done an exquisite job of adopting GDPR – Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation.
As you can plainly recognize from the name of the company which contains “international,” Sotheby’s International Realty is a brand that markets properties to people who live in the GDPR nations. Sotheby’s even translates currency into Euros and properties into multiple languages. These activities are the criteria that distinguish which businesses need to be GDPR compliant. Moreover, I am certain that the company regularly does transactions with European citizens who purchase homes here in America.
If you are a brokerage that sells properties to Europeans, are a member of a sales network that takes referrals for Europeans, or markets property in Europe through a network that displays homes for sale on European websites in European currencies, you need to be GDPR compliant.
Becoming GDPR Compliant is a process. There are two key prongs of becoming compliant. The first is notifying consumers that they have the right to be forgotten from all of your systems. The second prong is to make sure that you can deliver on that right. WAV Group provides GDPR consulting services. If you need help, please contact Victor Lund at victor@wavgroup.com.
GDPR Compliance in this Email Footer
One of the greatest risks that face medium and small firms today is compliance with laws like GDPR. The minimum fine is about $12 Million and up to 4% of your revenue. That is a penalty that has teeth. Consumer privacy trolls are already actively looking for failures by American businesses to comply. But GDPR is part of a trend that is also finding its way into US laws. The California 2020 Privacy Act is pretty similar in protecting consumer privacy with the right of people to be forgotten. Brokers need to take consumer privacy seriously.
As this image illustrates, Sotheby’s is notifying consumers of their rights under GDPR and providing a link to their GDPR compliance.
It is worth noting that they have not updated their copyright, © 2016. Another compliance service offered by WAV Group is to audit all of your systems to look for issues like this. Brokers need to have their copyright claims up to date, review terms of use, review privacy policy, and ensure that your technology vendors or in house technology teams are following MLS rules and regulations.
These types of audits are not expensive, its mostly an administrative task. Failure to ensure your compliance is very expensive, not only in its charge to your treasury but to your firm’s reputation. The last thing you want to read in the newspaper is an article about how your firm violated privacy laws. Contact Victor Lund if you want to talk about it.
