Insurance Europe has today published a paper that examines the impact of the different positions that have been taken by the European co-legislators – the European Commission, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament – on proposals for the e-Privacy Regulation, which will soon be debated in trialogue discussions.

The co-legislators should preserve the exemption for the “services requested by the end-user” to allow data collection from terminal equipment, as this is the only way insurers can continue to offer telematics-based insurance products.

These types of innovative services strongly benefit consumers by rewarding low-risk drivers with lower premiums, while also improving road safety. To enable insurers to continue providing such innovative services, it is important that the e-Privacy Regulation includes a legal basis that provides sufficient legal certainty to collect data from the terminal equipment.

However, only the Council’s position would provide the legal certainty insurers need to continue offering such products, as there is no exemption in either the Commission’s or the Parliament’s positions that provides for such certainty.

Insurance Europe also recommends safeguarding the current interplay between the e-Privacy Directive and the GDPR regarding the collection and processing of data from terminal equipment. Currently, as highlighted by the European Data Protection Board, the collection of data from the user’s terminal equipment is protected under the current e-Privacy Directive, with any subsequent processing of personal data falling under Article 6 of the GDPR.