The EU Parliament Committee in charge of reviewing the EU Commission’s Proposal for an e-Privacy Regulation (Proposal) recently released a Draft Report proposing amendments to the regulation.

The e-Privacy Regulation will regulate new electronic communication services such as instant messaging, VOIP services, web-based email, and IoT devices, and will impose significant additional obligations on Internet services and related technologies, including cookies and similar technologies. It supplements the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) adopted last year, which becomes effective May 25, 2018.

The Draft Report is the EU Parliament’s first legislative step towards the adoption of the e-Privacy Regulation, after the EU Commission Proposal earlier this year. We expect the final position of the EU Parliament to come in a Fall 2017 vote. However, this week’s Draft Report sets the tone for forthcoming discussions.

For more information, please see our complete WSGR Alert, which provides background information, identifies the main takeaways of the Draft Report, and gives an overview of the next steps.