Council of the EU publishes Progress Report on draft EU ePrivacy Regulation

Last month the Council of the European Union published its progress report on the first draft of the ePrivacy Regulation (the "Draft Regulation"). The Draft Regulation was issued by the EC in January of this year and focuses on the processing of personal data and protection of privacy in electronic communications. 

The Report focused on comments made by delegations during a line-by-line examination of Articles 1-8 of the Draft Regulation in meetings of the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society ("WP TELE").  Whilst the Draft Regulation was largely welcomed by delegations, the proposed date for it of 25 May 2018 (to align with the GDPR coming into force) was considered unrealistic – particularly given the higher level of scrutiny as a regulation (rather than a directive).  Other concerns raised include:

• Overlap with other legislation: the need for a more detailed examination of possible overlaps with other legislation (in particular the GDPR and the proposal on the European Electronic Communications Code)
• National data protection authorities: a lack of evidence that the appointment of national data protection authorities as supervisory authorities would solve the problem of inconsistent implementation and enforcement across the EU
• Scope: the need for a more detailed explanation of which organisations fall within the extension of scope of over-the-top providers and providers of "ancillary services"

Future WP TELE meetings are expected to review the remainder of the Draft Regulation, with the aim of finalising the first examination by the end of the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU later this month.

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Click here to view the EU Council's Progress Report