The EU and U.S. finalized a trans-Atlantic data flow pact Thursday. The "umbrella agreement," which provides safeguards and guarantees for data transfers carried out for law enforcement purposes, and which gives Europeans the same rights of redress before U.S. courts as U.S. citizens, is a "major step forward" in EU-U.S. relations, the EU Council said. The instrument needs European Parliament approval.
Dugie Standeford
Dugie Standeford, European Correspondent, Communications Daily and Privacy Daily, is a former lawyer. She joined Warren Communications News in 2000 to report on internet policy and regulation. In 2003 she moved to the U.K. and since then has covered European telecommunications issues. She previously covered the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and intellectual property law matters. She has a degree in psychology from Duke University and a law degree from the University of Tulsa College of Law.
As a mechanism to protect European privacy rights, Privacy Shield isn't perfect and never will be, EU Justice Commissioner Vera Jourová said at a European Parliament debate Wednesday. The EC couldn't fully achieve what it wanted in the negotiations because it has no power to change U.S. law, but it will keep monitoring developments there, she said. Nor could the commission affect how the U.S. accesses data for national security purposes when it can't even force EU countries to be more transparent about it, she said. The EC isn't fully satisfied with Privacy Shield but believes it's a reasonable compromise, she said. Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), who vote Thursday on a nonbinding resolution on trans-Atlantic data flows, remain divided over the effectiveness of Privacy Shield, and split over a proposal by some of the political groups to include a sunset clause in the agreement.
The European Commission is expected to reject universal platform regulation in favor of a sector-specific approach, said Computer & Communications Industry Association Europe Vice President James Waterworth at a Tuesday briefing. The EC communication, to be released Wednesday, is likely to say Europe should be platform-innovative and back a level playing field, a meaningless term that raises concerns for CCIA, he said. In its briefing, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) said it's worried a level playing field could be used to justify deregulation in some markets, and the online platform proposal could promote industry self-regulation to the detriment of users. And 14 EU governments asked the EC to take a light-touch approach to regulating online platforms. The original EC consultation on platforms attracted widespread criticism from telco, Internet, consumer and digital rights groups (see 1601110001).
Talks on a treaty updating broadcasting protections crept forward again at the May 9-13 Geneva meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR), some following the discussions told us. There appears to be growing consensus that, to be meaningful to broadcasters, any accord will have to encompass the digital environment, said European Broadcasting Union Head of Intellectual Property Law Heijo Ruijsenaars. Support for pure webcasting remains limited, while the possibility of covering simulcasting is still under discussion, said Carole Croella, WIPO senior counselor-culture and creative industries sector.
Two years after the European Court of Justice ruling requiring search engines to "delist" certain information upon an individual's request (see 1405140036), several concerns remain about the "right to be forgotten" (RTBF), said Reputation VIP CEO Bertrand Girin. One is the lack of awareness that people whose RTBF requests have been denied by Google or other search engines can seek re-examination by their local data protection authorities (DPAs), he said. Another is a lack of consistency of removal across Google territories, said reputation management company Igniyte client services head Roz Sheldon.
With the European Commission reportedly preparing to nix UK Three's buying O2, questions are being raised whether the carriers will pre-emptively withdraw their proposal, and whether cross-border tie-ins are the way forward. It would be yet another deal that European authorities effectively quashed amid heightened scrutiny on how telecom mergers and acquisitions hurt customers by raising prices (see 1508030002). The Competition Directorate has signaled that mobile consolidation in the domestic markets isn't welcome, telecom consultant Innocenzo Genna blogged Wednesday.
LONDON -- There's a sense of movement toward the standards, networks and industry markets that will build 5G, but the picture is still fairly unclear, speakers said Tuesday at a Wireless World Research Forum 5G "huddle" on making the vision a reality. The definition of 5G is still fuzzy, and there are issues of making enough spectrum available, preferably on a globally harmonized basis, to drive deployment, they said. Broadcasting and automotive speakers said they see the point of 5G but still question where it's going.
Google is breaching EU antitrust rules by imposing restrictions on Android device makers and mobile network operators, to the detriment of consumers, the European Commission said Wednesday. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager accused the company of pursuing an overall strategy on mobile devices to protect and expand its dominant position in Internet search. EC probes of Google's behavior on specialized search, comparison shopping services and third-party copying and advertising continue, she said at a news briefing.
Privacy Shield is a major improvement but raises concerns, said the EU Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP29) Wednesday. The draft EU-U.S. agreement, announced in February (see 1602290003), is the successor to the safe harbor arrangement for trans-Atlantic personal data flows. "Our first reaction to it was very positive," said Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, chairwoman of French data protection authority CNIL (Commission nationale de l’informatique et des libertés). But she said data protection regulators have problems with some provisions. Falque-Pierrotin said companies can continue to use binding corporate rules and model contract clauses for shifting data to the U.S. until the European Commission makes a decision on Privacy Shield. Industry and consumer reaction ranged from wariness to criticism.
EU transaction reviews might need to be revamped for digital companies, said Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, though others were skeptical. The digital economy "isn't just one sector among many," and mergers and acquisitions don't "just affect how we buy goods and services," Vestager said Thursday in a Brussels speech. "They can change the way we live, and the opportunities we have," which is why competition authorities may have to look at more than just revenue to decide if there are antitrust issues, she said. Considering factors such as customer base or data sets in M&A probes is a reasonable approach, but it's not clear it will ever happen, telecom consultants told us.