New ePrivacy regulation revision proposal and Blockchain regulation rush

The latest ePrivacy revision proposal brings relevant changes to the draft regulation and new Governments are joining the Blockchain regulation rush.

ePrivacy: latest revisions published by the EU Council

On 10 July 2018 the Council of the European Union published the latest revision proposal of the draft ePrivacy Regulation.

The proposal introduces considerable changes compared to the previous version as

  • Article 6 is amended to allow a further processing of electronic communications metadata not based on the end-user’s consent, but with several conditions to be met;
  • Article 10, which provided for the possibility to use browser setting for cookie consent, is deleted and
  • Article 8 is better clarified providing that access to specific website content may still be made conditional on the consent to the storage of a cookie or similar identifier.

The revisions will be discussed in a WP TELE meeting on 17 July 2018.

After the #GDPR hype, the ePrivacy Regulation is the next big thing in the privacy scene as it covers the confidentiality of electronic communications, thus having a wider field of application including non-personal data such as M2M and IoT data.

The impact this new ePrivacy Regulation will have on existing business models and digital markets is impressive and the legislative train should be carefully monitored in order to intercept its route since, as this new proposal shows, it can change rapidly.

Blockchain: worldwide regulation rush already beyond the starting line

The blockchain is exponentially gaining credit during this 2018 summer obtaining official recognition in legal frameworks all over the world.

After the first local blockchain-based test vote in Zug, SIX, the owner and operator of the Swiss stock exchange announced its plans to launch a fully-regulated platform for trading digital assets using blockchain. Meanwhile South Korean government is reportedly going to to produce the final draft of a new blockchain industry classificatory scheme by the end of July, recognizing crypto exchanges as regulated financial institutions. On the other side of the world, the Maltese Parliament recently approved three bills, including the Virtual Financial Asset act, establishing a regulatory framework for blockchain technology.

This regulation rush clearly shows that States are competing worldwide to become the next  hotspot for blockchain and cryptocurrency companies giving them the tools necessary to operate in a forward-looking, regulated economy.

As previously discussed here, this innovative technology will unleash its full disruptive potential in key business sectors in 2018, so better be ahead!

If you would like to receive more information on ePrivacy and Blockchain, please contact  Tommaso Ricci, @ tommaso.ricci@dlapiper.com.