Ecommerce Europe: European Parliaments report on ePrivacy may put EU businesses at risk

The association, which represents more than 35,000 ecommerce businesses in Europe, claims that the report will have a negative impact on online merchants’ business models. Another critique was that the report does not consider the important role consumer data plays in modern ecommerce marketing strategies.

The Proposal for a Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications aims to regulate confidentiality of electronic communication; processing of personal and other data in the course of electronic communications; access to information related to the terminal equipment of end-users and placing of information on the end-users terminal equipment and unsolicited commercial electronic communications.

However, Ecommerce Europe is concerned that the new legislation overlaps with provisions already put in place by the GDPR and asks for “consistency between the draft ePrivacy Regulation and the General Data Protection Regulation”. The organization believes that the ePrivacy Regulation should focus on the right on confidentiality of electronic communications.

In particular, the proposed ePrivacy Regulation provides for a number of provisions governing the conditions under which an enterprise can send electronic commercial communications to an individual. Ecommerce Europe asks for clear distinction between the GDPR, which deals with the collection and processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes (privacy and personal data protection), and the future  ePrivacy Regulation, which specifies the conditions for sending electronic commercial communications to an individual (respect for privacy).

More information about the position of Ecommerce Europe on the ePrivacy Regulation can be found here.