New German law recently adopted, regulates eprivacy and data protection in telecommunications and telemedia.
Last month, German parliament adopted a new law regulating eprivacy and data protection in telecommunications and telemedia. Previously, the laws regulating German data protection contained partially contradictory provisions, which led to legal uncertainty on various matters. In the past, data protection and privacy inquiries were typically split between two laws, the Telemedia Act and Telecommunications Act, until May 20th when the Data Protection Act was passed. This act aims to unify the country’s rules and bring them in line with the EU’s GDPR. This new law, commonly known as TTDSG, could however be superseded by European law soon, as discussions on the new ePrivacy Regulation intensify.
The new German law implements the ePrivacy directive with regard to the use of cookies.
The ePrivacy directive, which became EU law in 2009, states that websites are obligated to collect visitors’ informed consent to the use of cookies. The new German legislation implements the cookie consent rules of the 2009 ePrivacy Directive with a view to GDPR and the 2019 EU Court judgment in Planet49, Case C-673/17. Failure to obtain explicit consent to the use of cookies from internet users is incompatible with EU law, as rulings from both the EU court of justice and the German High Court demonstrate. The recently amended telecommunications act had been challenged by the opposition, who claimed that it did not contain sufficient data protection provisions.
Fibre optics use and development stand to benefit from this new German law.
Germany currently lags behind most EU countries in the arena of fibre optics use and development with only 4.7% of broadband being fibre optic connections. Many European countries like Sweden, Lithuania and Spain have their fibre optic connections falling somewhere between 69% and 75% of broadband. Fiber optics provide a dedicated synchronous Internet bandwidth, which is not shared with any other Internet client. Fiber is generally faster and more reliable, allowing faster downloads. The Telecommunications Act sets clear standards for the entitlements to Internet access based on “80% of the Internet speed used by consumers in upload and download,” according to MP Falko Mohrs. The amendment not only solidifies the legal right to internet access, but also contains a list of other services. These include interference-free accommodation of video conferencing, which is imperative to citizens’ abilities to participate in the digital world. By introducing this benchmark, Mohrs believes that the fibre-isation of the country is being driven forward. The benchmark is set and reviewed annually in collaboration with the country’s network agency.
