ePrivacy Regulation – CECE meets Commission and Parliament

As reported in a previous newsletter, CECE has activated its advocacy efforts on the ePrivacy regulation and has met key stakeholders of the so-called trialogue phase, where the Parliament and the Council are expected to come to a final agreed text of the legislation.

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In a bilateral meeting with MEP Axel VOSS (Germany, EPP) CECE insisted on the important advancements made by the European Council and the final agreement obtained by the Portuguese Presidency in mid-February. These improvements mainly have to do with clarifications regarding the scope for providers of machine-to-machine or Internet of Things services. CECE was pleased to exchange with Mr VOSS – who had taken part in the CECE Open Factory project by visiting Ammann factory in Hennef, Germany – and hear from him the willingness to work towards a workable solution for this key piece of legislation. He also expressed his commitment to reach a negotiated agreement with the European Council that delivers a clear text, with a defined application scope and roles for economic operators.

Indeed, since the publication of the Commission proposal back in 2017, CECE stressed the need for a clear application scope for the legislation and for the reality of B2B communications to be kept into consideration. Clarity is of critical importance for the implementation of the new regulation and CECE hopes that the improvements from the Council text will make their way into the final legal text.

The added-value of the Council’s work was confirmed in another bilateral meeting that CECE had with the competent services of the European Commission. Indeed, the Digital Privacy Policy unit of DG Connect confirmed that their assessment of the clarification made by the Portuguese Presidency went in the right direction. They confirmed they plan to uphold this legal point of view during the trialogue phase to which the Commission is associated albeit without the legislative power that lays in the hands of the Council and Parliament. Speaking of an important detail of the text, the Commission acknowledge the relevance of contracts as the main consent factor for B2B relations, such as those between CECE OEMs and machinery users. This has always been a key CECE request.  

The calendar for trialogue meetings is not yet agreed, but CECE will contact the relevant decision-makers on this file and advocate for the most future-proof outcome.