Data Protection Regulation delayed again

The trilogue negotiations have run into trouble as the EU Parliament, Commission and Council struggle to reach agreement on a variety of issues including consent and profiling.

As a result, further discussions on chapter II (principles) and III (rights of individuals) have been pushed back until October to allow all parties to consider a revised version of the text. The Council, Commission and Parliament still aim reach political agreement, but this is different from agreeing a final version of the text. So once again a target on the Data Protection Regulation will be missed.

The DMA had initially thought that the timetable indicating the Regulation would complete its legislative passage through Brussels by the end of this year was ambitious. The first quarter of 2016 was always a more likely scenario.

However, given the scope of current disagreements we now know for certain that the final version of the text will not be agreed until Q1 2016 and the regulation will not complete its legislative passage until Q2 2016. This means that the regulation is unlikely to be implemented into UK law until mid-2018.

This timeframe may yet be postponed yet again, but there is immense political pressure to get an agreement on the regulation. It is a priority for EU Commission President Juncker and a bedrock of the Digital Single Market, which President Juncker champions. The heads of government of the EU Member States have agreed that the regulation is an essential part of completing the Digital Single Market.

Rumours from Brussels suggest that there are some major problems with the Council position on legitimate interests. Both the Commission and Parliament are said to believe that the amendments proposed by the Council will bring the standard of data protection to below that of the current 1995 Data Protection Direction which is not acceptable to either the Commission or Parliament.

We will keep you advised of further developments later in the year as and when they occur. If you want to learn more about the regulation please visit our toolkit.