EU Justice Ministers remain broadly committed to extending the DP Regulation’s territorial scope



At the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 3 and 4 March, the Justice Minsters had a debate on the proposed EU Data Protection Regulation. They broadly supported the draft provisions regarding the territorial scope of the Regulation, which would make the Regulation applicable, for example, to US companies with customers or users of their services in the EU.

According to the Council’s press release, Ministers agreed that more technical work will need to be done on international data transfers and alternative models will need to be studied in-depth.

The Council confirmed that work will continue at a technical level on the basis of the progress achieved so far on: pseudonymisation as an element of the risk-based approach, portability of personal data for the private sector, and obligations of controllers and processors.

There were varied views on profiling. The majority of delegations consider that the scope of profiling should be limited to regulating automated decision-making as per the current DP Directive, but some delegations say that there should be specific provisions on the creation and use of profiles.

The EU Justice and Home Affairs Council will next meet 5-6 June.

Read a full report on the progress on the draft Regulation in the next Privacy Laws & Business International Report, to be published 24 April.