Author Archives: Sophie Stalla-Bourdillon

content regulation / Copyright / defamation / filtering / hate speech / Human rights / Internet intermediaries / Law enforcement / liability / notice-and-action / notice-and-take down / terrorism

The EU approach to content regulation online: tackling (il)legal content online with upload and re-upload filters!

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Intermediary liability has been up until now a never-ending story. For the past two years, we have been regularly fed with communications, codes of conduct, legislative proposals, as well as soft but loud encouragements, from national governments targeting online platforms and asking them to do much more to tackle illegal content such as child sexual … Continue reading →

Data protection / General Data Protection Regulation / ICO / misuse of private information

The GDPR, the parallel regime and the ICO

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The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will be applicable in less than a year, and experts are still discussing the extent to which the new regulation will have a significant impact upon the ‘legal basis’ requirement. However, as Bob Miller suggests in this guest blog post, it might not be enough to read and re-read … Continue reading →

audiovisual media services / content regulation / illegal content / Internet intermediaries

On Article 28a and the proposal to extend the AVMSD: is it time to be pessimistic?

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The proposal to extend the Audiovisiual Media Services Directive (AVMSD) continues along its legislative path. We are now entering the trilogue negotiations phase, and, after having read the unrelated [at least at first glance] G7 Taormina Statement on the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, I am re-reading  the  text of the Proposal for a … Continue reading →

information society services / Internet intermediaries

The politics of online platforms: when AG Szpunar converses with the EC in Elite Taxi v Uber.

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Advocate General Szpunar (AG) delivered yesterday his opinion in the highly political and much awaited case C‑434/15 Asociación Profesional Elite Taxi v Uber Systems Spain SL. In a nutshell, the AG was asked to answer four questions concerning two important milestones of the European Union (EU) acquis: the E-commerce Directive of 2000 and the services … Continue reading →

General Data Protection Regulation / illegal content / Internet intermediaries / Legitimate interest / Personal data

The CJEU and the concept of ‘legitimate interest’: The case of Rīgas satiksme

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The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its awaited judgment on 4 May in the case Valsts policijas Rīgas reģiona pārvaldes Kārtības policijas pārvalde v Rīgas pašvaldības SIA ‘Rīgas satiksme’, answering two related questions: ‘(1)      Must the phrase ‘is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the … third party … Continue reading →

anonymisation / big data / Personal data / Privacy / WiFI tracking

Anonymisation, pseudonymisation, WiFi tracking and the French: the JCDecaux case

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The topic of ‘anonymisation’ has already been covered several times on the blog (see e.g. here, here, and here). We even have a new research paper (‘Anonymous Data v. Personal Data — A False Debate: An EU Perspective on Anonymization, Pseudonymization and Personal Data’) recently published in the Wisconsin International Law Journal on this issue  … Continue reading →

Data protection / Internet intermediaries / liability / Privacy

Data Protection & Intermediary liability: how do the French do it?

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While the scope of intermediary liability exemptions is being discussed in several places around Europe (and beyond), it is interesting to go back to the Overblog legal saga, which a few years ago had been described by some as pre-announcing other popular sagas, such as the infamous Google Spain case (discussed in a previous post … Continue reading →

content regulation / Copyright / Data protection / General Data Protection Regulation / immunities / Internet intermediaries / ISPs / Right to be forgotten

The GDPR, the proposed Copyright Directive and intermediary liability: one more time!

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A lot has been written on the topic of intermediary liability in the past few months. But has everything been said or read? And looking at the different pieces of the regulatory jigsaw together, are we heading in the right direction? One important piece of the jigsaw is certainly the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) … Continue reading →

content regulation / Copyright / Internet intermediaries

If we had to live with Article 13 of the proposed Copyright Directive, what should it look like?

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Readers might remember an open letter sent to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Council a few weeks after the release by the European Commission of a proposal for a new Copyright Directive on 14 September 2016. The open letter, an initiative led by iCLIC, a Southampton University based research centre, had been … Continue reading →

Access to data / consent / content data / Data protection / Data retention / metadata / Privacy

The proposed ePrivacy Regulation: When the EC converses with the CJEU…

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So, 2017 is full of promises! One of them is the proposed ePrivacy Regulation (officially, ‘Regulation on Privacy and Electronic Communications’) that the European Commission (EC) has suggested should replace the existing, old fashioned ePrivacy Directive (Directive 2002/58/EC on Privacy and Electronic Communications). The proposed ePrivacy Regulation – which would represent a signficant evolution in … Continue reading →