Spam, Cookies And Consent: 7 Talking Points From Proposals To Reform The ePrivacy Directive

In July 2016, the Article 29 Working Party ("WP29") and the European Data Protection Supervisor ("EDPS") published opinions (the "Opinions") on the reform of the ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC) (the "Directive"). These Opinions followed a public review and consultation on the Directive, carried out by the European Commission ("EC"). While these sets of proposals are non-binding, they can still influence how the Directive is reformed. We take a look at the main talking points.

Background

The Directive currently regulates an assortment of areas, including cookies, spam and the use of location data. It also covers many telecoms-specific issues, such as billing, collection of traffic data and the interception of communications. The recent Opinions support the retention of many of the features of the Directive while extending the protections to cover services of non-telecoms providers (such as Skype and Viber). The Opinions also include proposals to regulate