Harmonising spectrum allocation across the EU and ensuring secure networks

02

Creating a single EU data area: innovative – legally secure – value-based

Even after almost two years of becoming law, the European Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) still leads to legal uncertainties in the application practice of companies. Although the GDPR creates a uniform, value-based legal framework for all member states, companies are faced with considerable uncertainty and differing interpretations in the actual application of the law within the member states. This can be seen from the fact that the number of requests for advice from the supervisory authorities has increased dramatically. A large number of the legal requirements in the GDPR is very succinctly formulated and therefore requires interpretation.

In the course of this legal interpretation, national supervisory authorities within the European Union have come to a very inconsistent interpretation.

Examples of this are the currently unclarified questions of the scope of the permissible offences, or the legally secure anonymisation of personal data and thus the distinction between personal and non-personal data. In order to prevent the GDPR from becoming a locational disadvantage for European companies, the European Data Protection Committee should ensure that the GDPR is handled in a uniform and legally secure manner throughout Europe. The high fines of 4 percent of annual revenues, which could be imposed in the event of a breach of the GDPR regulations, further increase the uncertainty on the part of the company in its legal handling of data. The bureaucratic burden caused by the many information and documentation obligations and numerous decisions to be weighed up is still an everyday challenge, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). On the other hand, in view of the above findings, the Union legislator is also called upon to address the existing problems of companies in the context of the forthcoming evaluation of the GDPR 2020 and to make targeted legal adjustments to facilitate the application of the law. Only through legally secure and unbureaucratic application, will the GDPR have the potential to establish itself as a worldwide standard in the future.

“An innovative EU data space is the basis for a successful European platform economy. It is the basis for the integration of people, analytics and business processes and therefore for sustainable added value and competitiveness”.