November 2013

The determination of the territorial scope of the current EU Directive n° 95/46 is still under dispute both before national Courts and the European Court of Justice (ECJ). This issue may soon become moot with the adoption of future data protection regulation, which may modify and expand the territorial scope of EU data privacy law, especially following the results of the recent vote of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. The following is meant to help determine the current state of affairs regarding the issue of the territorial (and extraterritorial) scope of the future EU law following this vote of the European Parliament. 

This past month, the European Union’s Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (the “Working Party”) issued the Working Document 02/2013 providing new guidance on obtaining consent for cookies (“Working Document”). The Working Document sets forth various mechanisms which can be utilized by websites to obtain consent