The forthcoming European Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications

During the last years, we have been witnesses of revolutionary digital transformation. Today, it is difficult to imagine a world without smartphones, messengers, e-mails and the Internet. Advanced solutions in the field of automation, robotics, cloud computing, 5G network, or the Internet of Things are becoming a reality. The economic and technological changes have made the broadly understood digital issues a strategic element of the European Union’s economic policy. The Digital Single Market (DSM) strategy, adopted in 2015, presents the European Union’s ambition in the digital area. As a part of this plan, the European Commission is working on various solutions which aim to remove the existing barriers that hinder Europe's digital growth and protect its citizens during the digital transformation.

Issues such as: confidentiality of information, treatment of traffic data, spam or cookies are up to this date covered by the current ePrivacy Directive adopted in 2002. However, since its last revision in 2009, the technological alternations and related electronic communications services, have significantly evolved. Following the rapid changes and the need of a new legislation, The European Union is working on a new ePrivacy Regulation which will repeal the previous ePrivacy Directive and complement the General Data Protection Regulation.

Scope of the white paper