German-Led EU Council Pushes Tougher ePrivacy Draft

Alja Poler De Zwart spoke to Global Data Review about the German presidency of the Council of the EU’s proposal to remove a GDPR-style legitimate interests provision from the ePrivacy Regulation.

According to Alja, the inclusion of a legitimate interests provision is “underrated,” noting that the provision was proposed as a “sort of compromise and a step away from the consent-based approach when it became clear that many EU member states would not support the existing text.”

“Critics of the consent approach have been rightfully arguing that requiring consent is a flawed approach because it will result in consent fatigue and not contribute to greater privacy protections,” Alja said, adding that it is currently unclear whether the removal of the legitimate interests proposal will accelerate or slow the lawmaking process. “This point alone has the potential [to] become the prime reason for another delay to finally wrapping up the regulation.”

Read the full article.