34th International Conference

Session 1

11.00 UK/ 12.00 CET

Session Recording

The United Kingdom’s new, bold approach to international data transfers

The Right Honourable John Whittingdale OBE MP, the UK’s Minister of State for Media and Data
Joe Jones, Head of Data Adequacy, Data Policy Directorate, Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport
Rebecca Cousin, Partner, Slaughter and May

Chairs: Valerie Taylor, Consultant, & Stewart Dresner, Chief Executive, Privacy Laws & Business

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The United Kingdom has left the European Union but is still tied in many ways to the legal culture from which the GDPR has emerged. How will the tension be resolved of the UK government wanting to be regarded by the EU as adequate, but also wanting to forge relationships with many other countries whose privacy laws are quite different. This situation will inevitably lead to the UK interpreting “essentially equivalent” in a more flexible way than the EU.

Session 2

14.00 UK/ 15.00 CET

Session Recording

The EU’s work on promoting free and safe data flows

Bruno Gencarelli, Head of Unit – International Data Flows and Protection, European Commission

Chairs: Laura Linkomies, Editor, & Stewart Dresner, Chief Executive, Privacy Laws & Business

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Bruno Gencarelli has the pivotal role in investigating and reviewing the countries which currently have an adequacy declaration and those which are applying for an adequacy declaration for the first time.

The spotlight will certainly be on the United Kingdom where the current data protection law has the designation as the UK GDPR. But if the EU did not accept the UK, then which other country would pass the test?

We understand that “essential equivalence” does not mean a carbon copy of the EU GDPR but what are the limits of divergence? What can be learned from the European Commission’s decision on South Korea to help understand about how the review process might work for other countries?

Session 3

11.00 UK/ 12.00 CET

Session Recording

Regulators: Enforcers or Educators?

Dr Hielke Hijmans, Chairman of the Litigation Chamber, Belgian Data Protection Authority
Bertrand Pailhès, Head of Technology and Innovation, CNIL
Anne-Charlotte Recker, Legal Advisor, Belgian Data Protection Authority
Anna-Katharina Lohbeck, Counsel, Linklaters

Chair: Richard Cumbley, TMT Partner, Global Head of TMT/IP, Linklaters

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Regulators around Europe have significantly varied approaches to engaging with data controllers and data subjects. What influences regulators to move to enforce rather than to educate? How do they measure the effectiveness of these actions? What can data controllers do to spot whether theirs is the next company or industry to be subject to enforcement action?

Session 4

14.00 UK/ 15.00 CET

Session Recording

International cloud codes of conduct: Building an environment of trust

Antoine Bon, Legal Advisor, Belgian Data Protection Authority
Paul Breitbarth, Director, Global Policy & EU Strategy, TrustArc
Michal Czerniawski, Legal Officer, European Data Protection Board
Gabriela Mercuri, Director Business Strategy & Manager Public Policy, SCOPE Europe
Jonathan Sage, Government & Regulatory Affairs, IBM, and Chair, the EU Cloud Code of Conduct General Assembly

Chairs: Helena Wootton, Data Lawyer, & Stewart Dresner, Chief Executive, Privacy Laws & Business

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Enabling industry to participate with DPAs in co-regulating privacy.

Deciding on a competent DPA when developing codes for other sectors.

Which sectors are next? Lessons for other sectors in Europe e.g. health and financial services.

How future Codes of Conduct can further support the compliance landscape, both in Europe, and also in other jurisdictions.

Session 5

11.00 UK/ 12.00 CET

Session Recording

Win-win-win: Reducing AI privacy risks via co-regulatory sandboxes

Stephen Almond, Director of Technology and Innovation, Information Commissioner's Office
Milly Doolan, Head of Public Policy, The Croatian AI Association
Yordanka Ivanova, Legal and policy officer for AI, DG CNECT, A2, European Commission
Verena Kontschieder, Project Lead, Open Loop
Kari Laumann, Head of Section for Research, Analysis and Policy, Datatilsynet

Chair: Bojana Bellamy, President, Centre for Information Policy Leadership, Hunton Andrews Kurth

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This will be a session on the relationship between the European Commission’s AI initiative and innovative policy-making, building on current and new examples of national sandboxes. The panel, drawn together by Facebook, will discuss how a co-regulatory approach to AI should lead to creating new ways of public-private partnership. Such collaboration would allow regulators and companies to work together to facilitate and speed up the route to well considered regulatory approval, where necessary.

Taking as a starting point the approach taken by the Commission to foster the creation of AI sandboxes at EU and Member State level, the panel will then focus on exploring practical aspects with the authorities based on their experiences in launching sandboxes as well as with private initiatives such as the Open Loop programme.

The faster development of Europe as a centre for innovation to rival other regions of the world would be a systemic benefit for the European Commission and for the EU’s economy and society. Sandboxes and innovative policy prototyping programmes are likely to play an important role in that respect.

Open Loop is the innovative policy prototyping programme that was launched by Facebook with other partners. The first session of Open Loop focused on risk assessment of AI models, building on GDPR experience of DPIAs. Verena will speak on how these initiatives are complementary to sandboxes and how one can learn from the other.

Session 6

14.00 UK/ 15.00 CET

Session Recording

Collaboration and Collision: Competition, Consumer and Privacy Law

Claudia Berg, General Counsel, Information Commissioner's Office
Professor Erika Douglas, Temple University Beasley School of Law
Simeon Thornton, Director for Markets, Competition and Markets Authority

Chair: Brent Homan, Deputy Commissioner, Compliance, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada

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The objective of this panel is to consider the interplay between these three types of laws and assess the extent to which they can together achieve synergy in protecting individuals’ rights including through cross-regulatory cooperation.

This panel is on the convergence of, and potential tensions between, data protection law, competition law and consumer law. We will discuss the growing intersection of Privacy and Competition, along with a discussion of the regulatory complements and tensions, drawing from examples and also discussing collaboration across regulatory spheres.

While competition policy traditionally had a focus on price, this is no longer such a useful indicator of a dominant position when so many online services are free. It has led Rohit Chopra, US FTC Commissioner to explain: “The most dangerous price is free.”

The panel includes speakers who have experience of working in more than one of these fields.

Brent Homan was formerly Assistant Deputy Commissioner at the Competition Bureau of Canada where he led numerous high profile misleading advertising investigations in the areas of price representations, E-Commerce and Health Fraud. He is now is co-chair of the Global Privacy Assembly’s Digital Consumer Working Group.

Claudia Berg until recently worked at the Competition & Market’s Authority where she was responsible for the legal oversight of the CMA’s entire competition law enforcement portfolio, from the launch of an investigation through to decision and subsequent litigation before the Courts.

Professor Erika Douglas is currently writing an article on this subject commissioned by the Global Privacy Assembly’s Digital Consumer Working Group.