Changes due to the UK leaving the EU
Due to the UK completing the transition period of leaving the EU at the end of 2020, there will be some changes to how some of your services are billed and there may be some changes to how your data is handled. These changes all result from the ways in which we will need to work with top tier providers, most if not all of which are US-based for technology and infrastructure.
Top tier providers – such as Microsoft, Amazon and Google – have informed us that all their billing from 1 January 2021 will be conducted in our local currency (GBP), rather than their local currency and/or the end customer local currency. Thus top tier providers will be billing in GBP.
UK organisations
If you are a UK organisation, any hardware, software, licenses and other third party services which have been billed in GBP will continue with no change. Any items which were previously billed in USD and converted to GBP by us will now be billed in GBP directly. This may result in a slight increase in the cost of said items, which will be entirely dictated by the top tier provider based on their pricing.
European organisations
If you are a European organisation, any hardware, software, licenses and other third party services which have been billed in EUR will continue with no change. Any items which were previously billed in USD and converted to EUR by us will now be billed in GBP which will be converted to EUR by us. This may result in a slight increase in the cost of said items, which will be dictated by both the top tier provider based on their pricing and/or potential currency conversion fees.
Future localised billing
If you are a European organisation that is adversely affected by these changes in 2021, we may be able to offer you billing directly in EU and data protection agreements via our European OÜ entity.
Shipping from the UK to the EU
We are fully EORI compliant and we will provide our Economic Operator Registration and Identification number on request. This allows us to move hardware between the UK and the EU. Please note that shipping from the UK to the EU may be subject to additional charges due to the new post-Brexit processes and customs requirements – we are currently unsure as to what these will be until this becomes common practice in January ’21.
Data protection with the EU and the US
The UK government has indicated that the GDPR will continue following Brexit, with a new version including some amendments currently termed the ‘UK GDPR’ coming into effect. Standard contractual clauses (SCCs) may be required for some services and/or territories. We will issue a further update covering data protection and security soon.