EPrivacy Regulation

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The ePrivacy Regulation (ePR) is a proposal for the regulation of various privacy-related topics, mostly in relation to electronic communications within the European Union. Its full name is "Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the respect for private life and the protection of personal data in electronic communications and repealing Directive 2002/58/EC (Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications)." It would repeal the Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive 2002 (ePrivacy Directive) and would be lex specialis to the General Data Protection Regulation. It would particularise and complement the latter in respect of privacy-related topics. Key fields of the proposed regulation are the confidentiality of communications, privacy controls through electronic consent and browsers, and cookies.

The history of the regulation goes back to January 2017 when the European Commission proposed the ePrivacy Regulation.^[1] The intention was that it would sit alongside the EU GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) when it was introduced on 25 May 2018.^[1] The scope is still under discussion.^[2] According to some proposals, it would apply to any business that processes data in relation to any form of online communication service, uses online tracking technologies, or engages in electronic direct marketing.^[3]

The proposed penalties for noncompliance would be up to €20 million or, in the case of an undertaking, up to 4% of the total worldwide annual turnover, whichever is higher.^[4] The ePrivacy Regulation originally was intended to come in effect on 25 May 2018, together with the GDPR, but has still not been adopted.