Google and Microsoft are among companies that dominated EU lobbying in 2015, said public interest group Transparency International (TI) in December. Last year saw heavy lobbying by the corporate sector on digital economy issues, with Digital Economy Commissioner Günther Oettinger having the most lobby contacts, it said. As lobbying in Brussels heats up, it's also becoming more transparent, TI and others said. The European Commission said it's readying a proposal to make the transparency register mandatory, and several members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are posting records of their meetings with lobbyists. Despite problems such as inaccurate registrations and the predominance of corporate lobbyists, 2016 could be the year when Europe sees major changes in transparency, TI EU Integrity Policy Officer Daniel Freund told us.
While details of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) remained sketchy Wednesday because the text of the compromise isn't public, the measure is widely viewed as a major development -- be it good or bad. Privacy lawyers said the legislation will strongly affect the way companies handle data protection responsibilities, partly because of the new, higher penalties. "This will deliver the biggest shake-up in privacy regulation for 20 years," wrote Linklaters (Brussels) Global Head of Privacy and Data Protection Tanguy Van Overstraeten. One industry coalition said the GDPR will scare off investors, while telecom network operators said the agreement will leave in place conflicting rules for telcos and Internet players. Digital rights activists and ISPs said the legislation seemed to lack the ambition of the original European Commission proposal.
Progress on a treaty to update broadcasting protections inched forward during the Dec. 7-11 World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) meeting in Geneva, some of those following the talks told us. Broadcasters said they feel better now that several forward-looking options are on the table and delegates are discussing the text of a possible agreement. But those we spoke with said key issues such as what signals should be protected and what rights broadcasters should be granted remain unresolved.
Cross-border portability of digital content and a possible "snippet tax" on news aggregators are part of a proposed European Commission copyright reform package raising concerns among stakeholders, they told us last week. The proposal includes a regulation to allow those who subscribe to Internet content services in their home countries to access them when they travel in Europe, and a communication setting out a vision for a modernized European copyright regime. The package represents the first move toward a digital single market, with other legislative and policy proposals to follow, the EC said.
The EU Internet Forum aims to fight online terrorism and hate content via a public-private approach, the European Commission said in launching the project Thursday. EU governments, the European Parliament, Europol and the EU counterterrorism coordinator are expected to work with major online companies on a joint, voluntary strategy for finding and addressing the material, the EC said. The companies were mostly tight-lipped about what their role might be. European Digital Rights strongly criticized the failure to include civil society groups in the discussion and accused the EU of trying to pressure the Internet industry into solving public policy problems. ISPs were left out.
Platform regulation is becoming a hot topic in Europe, with the European Commission and U.K. Parliament mulling possible action, France eyeing a "duty of loyalty" for platforms, and an Italian bill making its way through the legislature. The EC approach is so vague it's unclear what, if anything, will emerge, said a digital rights activist. That vagueness could mean the debate will remain theoretical for a long time, or it could be jump-started by other events, a telecom consultant said. One key question is whether there's a need for new laws, since platforms already are highly regulated, said an attorney who handles telecom and media cases.
Zero-rating concerns haven't gone away, despite EU agreement on net neutrality rules, said industry and public interest commentators in interviews. That split also was clear during a Nov. 11 European Parliament plenary debate. While many lawmakers said zero rating is good for consumers, subject to monitoring by national telecom regulators to ensure net neutrality, others criticized colleagues, governments and the European Commission for failing to take explicit action against it. That prompted an angry retort from Digital Economy & Society Commissioner Günther Oettinger.
The European Parliament overwhelmingly approved net neutrality legislation in line with its negotiated compromise with EU governments. The original European Commission-proposed telecom single market (TSM) package was whittled down to two issues -- ending mobile roaming charges across Europe and enshrining net neutrality into EU law. Some members of the European Parliament (MEPs) offered amendments aimed at aligning the compromise text with earlier legislative language, but all were rejected and the law was adopted. Tuesday's outcome holds lessons for the U.S., said Roslyn Layton, vice president of Danish telecom consultancy Strand Consult. Digital rights and consumer groups were disappointed with the result; telecom organizations were cautious.
With companies that send personal data to the U.S. facing a January deadline to find legal transfer mechanisms now that the safe harbor agreement is dead, the question is whether the EU and U.S. can successfully negotiate "safe harbor 2.0." Max Schrems, whose challenge to the Irish data protection commissioner over Facebook's storage of Europeans' personal information in the U.S. led to the Oct. 6 European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision overturning agreement (see 1510060001), predicted there would be no new agreement. Privacy lawyers we spoke with said there will likely be another safe harbor but that many obstacles remain. European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourová, who updated the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee Monday on negotiations with the U.S., said progress is being made but agreement won't be easy.
Data transfers still taking place under the safe harbor agreement are "unlawful," EU data protection authorities confirmed Friday. In a statement following a meeting on the ramifications of the Oct. 6 European Court of Justice (ECJ) decision killing safe harbor (See 1510060001), the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP) "urgently" called on EU governments and institutions to "open discussion with US authorities" on legal and technical solutions to allow data to flow while respecting privacy rights. The group of national privacy authorities said it will launch "appropriate" national information campaigns that could include direct contact with all known companies that used to rely on the agreement. The statement shows the WP is trying to balance concerns for safe data flows with reasonable expectations, said Hogan Lovells (London) data protection attorney Eduardo Ustaran.