Globalization increases the likelihood of cross-border privacy and data protection cases, thus calling for co-operation amongst data protection authorities (DPAs). This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art in such co-operation as well as of proposed European reforms in the field, but also attempts to see whether enforcement co-operation in competition law could provide insight for improving co-operation between DPAs. weiter lesen

Contemporary Internet is highly interactive. This research concerns the impact of development of the Internet on the liability of intermediary service providers (ISP) for illegal user-generated content (e.g. copyright infringement or defamation) adopting a multidisciplinary approach (legal, social, technical, etc.). The main question is how to shape the ISP liability in «the Web 2.0 era»? This introductory essay forms a part of the author’s research for the master thesis in law and technology at the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT). weiter lesen

The Third Energy Package (2009) encourages a long-term modernisation of electrical grids in Europe. Hence the European Commission considers a roll-out of the EU-wide regulatory framework for the next-generation grids, i.e. smart grids, including smart meters. Among all the promised benefits, this concept raises a number of privacy and data protection issues. The main aim of this introductory essay is to identify and briefly analyse them from the EU perspective. This paper forms a part of a broader research on privacy and data protection within smart grids. weiter lesen

Privacy impact assessment (PIA) is now considered an important tool to address privacy challenges of the digital era. Unless PIA is already mandatory, regulators need to provide incentive to both public and private sector to conduct PIA and thus potential limitation or even exclusion of civil liability seems attractive. In this paper, we try to understand why PIA can impact this liability by going back to its foundation, i.e. the precautionary principle. A good PIA could demonstrate no fault was committed or could allow resorting to the so-called development risk defence. weiter lesen