International e-discovery has never been easy. Differences of language, currency, culture and, of course, law, have historically made crossing borders to conduct e-discovery a challenge. However, 2014 may be the year that challenge became much more daunting.
For several years, many European regulators and lawmakers have viewed some American companies, such as Google and Facebook, as threats to the privacy of European citizens. On the other side of the world, the Chinese have criminal penalties for data privacy violations, and the People’s Republic limits what personal data can leave the country. Making matters more difficult, the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure allow far more discovery than the laws of other nations.
