Industry coalition calls for better alignment of the Data Act with the GDPR
BRUSSELS, 25 January 2023 – Today, FEDMA issued a joint statement on the Data Act and its interplay with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Chapter II of the proposal together with a coalition of associations representing companies from various sectors of the business community.
The statement highlights that some provisions in the European Commission’s proposal and some amendments in the LIBE Committee’s draft opinion would restrict certain data processing activities even when carried out in a GDPR-compliant way.
These provisions do not only risk curbing the benefits for innovation, but they are at odds with the Data Act’s objective to empower users who should be free to decide the purposes for sharing their personal data insofar as any data sharing and processing is compliant with the GDPR.
With the GDPR, the EU has set up a modern futureproof data protection framework. Yet, the Data Act could undermine these achievements and the credibility of the GDPR.
Specifically, the coalition calls on EU legislators to:
- Defer to all the GDPR legal bases and GDPR rules on further processing;
- Incentivize the use of Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) to maintain high levels of privacy and enable the safe reuse of personal data;
- Preserve the horizontal nature of the Data Act without excluding data processing activities from certain sectors in full compliance with the GDPR.
The full coalition includes:
ACT – The App Association
AIG –Advertising Information Group
CCIA – Computer & Communications Industry Association
EUCOPE – European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs
FEDMA – Federation of European Data and Marketing
IAB Europe – Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe
IAB Poland – Interactive Advertising Bureau Poland
IAB Spain – Interactive Advertising Bureau Spain
IAB Sweden- Interactive Advertising Bureau Sweden
ITI – Information Technology Industry Council
You can read the full letter here.
