Please find below this week's main EU regulatory developments related to advertising.

Data Protection - Rapporteur Axel Voss publishes draft report on data protection

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Data Protection

Rapporteur Axel Voss publishes draft report on data protection

On Thursday 31 March, German Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Axel Voss published his draft report on the revision of the Data Protection Directive. This report will now be discussed, amended and adopted in the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee during the coming weeks, where Rapporteur Voss will also be incorporating amendments from other EP committees.

This report is a so-called own-initiative report, which does not have any legally binding force, but will set out the EP’s views on data protection before the Commission publishes a formal proposal later in 2011.

The Report makes the following points:

• Fully engaging with a comprehensive approach

• Full harmonisation of data protection in the EU is needed;
• Rules must be applicable everywhere by everyone, irrespective of the location of data collectors;
• Financial burdens should be kept to a minimum.

• Strengthening individuals’ rights

• The concepts of consent, transparency and data minimisation need to be clarified;
• The right to be forgotten should also be clarified and the means to allow consumers to erase and block their data should be improved;
• Education is very important, especially of young people.

• Further advancing the internal market dimension and better enforcement of data protection rules

• The concepts of “privacy by design” and “privacy by default” should be applied concretely;
• Self-regulatory initiatives should be supported and encouraged;
• Data Protection Authority’s (DAPs) roles and functions should be reinforced.

• Strengthening the global dimension of data protection

• Rules and procedures for international data transfers should be clarified and core EU data protection aspects should be used for all types of international agreements;
• Criteria and requirements to assess the level of data protection in a third country should be better specified.

While this report broadly supports initiatives taken up by the industry, BEUC, the European Consumers Protection Association, expressed its disagreement during a Public hearing organised by the European People’s Party (EPP) following the publication of the draft report. A representative of the consumer association insisted that “self-regulation will never be the right solution”.

Next steps: The EP report on data protection will continue to be discussed in the various committees involved and will likely be adopted in Plenary in June. Although this own-initiative report will have no legally binding force, it will certainly influence the debate around the revision of the Data Protection framework.

	WFA Priorities:
WFA will continue to engage with Axel Voss and other leading MEPs in order to convey its vision for responsible data processing in the context of online advertising. This is an opportunity to showcase industry efforts to design a convincing self-regulatory response to the issue of online behavioural advertising, currently being developed with the support of the European Commission.

View WFA Advocacy priorities European Action Group Meeting 18 May 2011 - Brussels, 10:00 - 13:00