The Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU invited Member States, in a document dated 4 November, of which EUROPE has obtained a copy, to provide their comments and remarks on the proposed ‘ePrivacy’ Regulation (see EUROPE 12408/18). Further interinstitutional negotiations (‘trilogues’) are scheduled for 18 November.
While the Presidency has stated its ambition to conclude the discussions on chapters 3, 5, and 6 of the proposed regulation, several points still need to be settled.
Thus, the EU Council and the European Parliament will have to agree on several concepts concerning the presentation of communication lines. Both institutions agree that the text should cover both natural and legal persons.
However, a balance will have to be found on the definition of ‘end-user’, with the Council of the EU wishing to use the definition contained in the “European Electronic Communications Code’ (EECC) (EU 2018/1972), while Parliament would like to use the definition in the ‘General Data Protection Regulation’ (GDPR) (EU 2016/679).
Delegations are also invited to address the issue of line identification when dealing with Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs). In this respect, Parliament argues that the sole purpose of this derogation making line identification possible should be to enable the provision of emergency relief.
Directories and unwanted calls
The EU Council Presidency also surveyed Member States on their position on publicly accessible directories. The text provides that end-user consent is required for the registration of a natural person.
On this point, the EU Council believes that a compromise solution could be found. Member States could maintain national measures adopted before the entry into force of the Regulation, making it possible to register a natural person in a public directory, provided that the user has the possibility to object.
In addition, discussions should also focus on limiting unwanted calls or direct marketing communications.
The positions of the EU Council and Parliament are still far apart on this issue, with Parliament wanting to extend the scope to legal persons and to include pop-up windows and e-mail advertising. This approach, Parliament believes, would allow for better alignment with the e-commerce directive.
See the document: https://bit.ly/3njyfUW (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)