Privacy & Information Security Law Blog

On October 4, 2019, the Presidency of the European Council published its revised text (the “Revised Draft”) of the Proposal for a Regulation Concerning the Respect for Private Life and the Protection of Personal Data in Electronic Communications (the “Draft ePrivacy Regulation”). The Revised Draft was released in preparation for the Working Party on Telecommunications and Information Society’s meeting, which took place on October 11, 2019 (the “WP Tele”) and introduces limited amendments compared to the draft amendments proposed by the Presidency of the European Council last month.

The Revised Draft clarifies the link between the ePrivacy Regulation and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) with regard to the use of cookies, i.e., it supplements and particularizes the general rules on the protection of personal data collected from the end user’s terminal, such as via cookies, as set out under the GDPR. The consent exemption to the use of cookies for the purpose of audience measuring remains in the Revised Draft, subject to certain conditions. In addition, the Revised Draft introduces the possibility for EU Member States to determine a set period of time after the sale of a product or a service during which companies may use existing customer’s contact details for direct marketing purposes.