One of the important novelties of GDPR was that it applies not only to the processing of personal data in the context of the activities of an establishment of a controller or a processor in the Union, but also to the processing of personal data of data subjects who are in the Union by a controller or processor not established in the Union, where the processing activities are related to:
(a) the offering of goods or services, irrespective of whether a payment of the data subject is required, to such data subjects in the Union; or
(b) the monitoring of their behavior as far as their behavior takes place within the Union.
Article 27 of the GDPR stipulates that controllers and processors subject to the extraterritorial effect shall designate in writing a representative in the Union.
Based on these provisions, GDPR has a clear impact on non-EU organizations as well. One side effect of this extraterritorial effect was that some data controllers outside the EU, fearing the risks of non-compliance with GDPR, ceased their activity in the EU.
However, the impact of GDPR can be experienced not only directly but also indirectly since the GDPR serves as an example of data protection rules for legislators in many countries around the world. This may be justified by the fact that cross-border flow of personal data requires a harmonized set of rules that could have a beneficial impact on the transfer of personal data to third countries using provisions similar to the rules of the GDPR. (A trend towards comprehensive national privacy / data protection rules can be experiences in the last years.)