The e-Privacy Regulation, proposed back in 2016(1) aims at ensuring consistency between the existing but aged e-Privacy Directive and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). FEDMA, the Federation of European Data and Marketing has been an active stakeholder in the process, as an update from the current e-Privacy Directive means many changes for marketers, and not just in the arena of cookies. For example the current e-Privacy Directive does not regulate B2B marketing.

Enrico Girotto, FEDMA’s Head of Policy told PL&B that the e-Privacy regulation is still alive even though progress has been slow: “Most of the attention in the recent year has been, and still is, on Chapter 3, Article 16 on direct marketing. The chapter is not closed yet but very close to being agreed upon. After that, the parties will move on to the most controversial aspect of the ­proposal, namely cookies.”