BfDI (Germany) - 4/2021

BfDI - 2021-02-18 - 4/2021
Authority:	BfDI (Germany)
Jurisdiction:	Germany
Relevant Law:	Directive 2002/58/EC Telekommunikationsgesetz (TKG) Telemediengesetz (TMG)
Type:	Other
Outcome:	n/a
Started:
Decided:
Published:	18.02.2021
Fine:	None
Parties:	n/a
National Case Number/Name:	2021-02-18 - 4/2021
European Case Law Identifier:	n/a
Appeal:	n/a
Original Language(s):	German
Original Source:	bfdi.bund.de (in DE)
Initial Contributor:	n/a

The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Der Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit - BfDI) criticized that 1000 days have been passed without adapting the German Telemedia Act (Telemediengesetz - TMG) and German Telecommunications Act (Telekommunikationsgesetz - TKG) to the GDPR.

English Summary

Facts

Both of the TKG and TMG are fundamental for the electronic communication and there are many regulations still written in both laws that are only partially or not valid at all.

Regarding cookies the TMG and the Directive on privacy and electronic communications (Directive 2002/58/EC) make different specifications.

The legislature aims to pass a new Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act (Telekommunikations-Telemedien-Datenschutzgesetz - TTDSG) with the provisions regarding data protection of the TMG and TKG and plans also an implementation of the Code electronic communication into the national law by passing a Telecommunications Modernization Act (Telekommunikationsmodernisierungsgesetzes - TKModG).

Holding

The DPA held that urgent clarifications are missing and that as a consequence there is legal uncertainty in practice regarding the consideration of the data protection law.

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English Machine Translation of the Decision

The decision below is a machine translation of the German original. Please refer to the German original for more details.