The EU Council Presidency on September 18 put forward to member states an 88-page compromise proposal on the Eprivacy Regulation with considerable changes and amendments. There are several proposed changes to the provisions on email marketing and cookie use that we think readers may find relevant. Here is the proposal of the Finnish Presidency. The main areas that were modified by the current proposal are:

• Email marketing
• The definition of direct marketing
• Procedures around direct marketing calls
• End user consent for cookies

Other changes include revisions to Article 6b on permitted processing of electronic communications metadata, and importantly an amendment Article 6c (Previous Art. 6(2a)) on compatible processing of electronic communications metadata. There are also some efforts to bring the retention of telecoms data under the Eprivacy Regulation. Mandatory data retention (e.g., for law enforcement purposes) is a hotly disputed issue in the European Union and there will be pushback on efforts to bring this issue in through the “backdoor” of the Eprivacy Regulation.

Please note that this is likely not the final text. It will still take several months for the Eprivacy Regulation to be finalized.