23 January 2018

Insurance Europe: Data protection guidelines must not overreach the GDPR

Insurance Europe has responded to the Article 29 Working Party consultation on its draft guidelines on transparency and on the consent needed to process people’s data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Article 29 Working Party will soon become the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) when the GDPR becomes fully applicable throughout the EU on 25 May 2018. The Working Party has already begun the work that the EDPB is tasked with on guidelines under the GDPR. As the GDPR will have a wide ranging and fundamental impact on the financial services industry, Insurance Europe calls on the Working Party to ensure that the final GDPR guidelines are developed as swiftly as possible.

Insurance Europe also underlines that the guidelines should not expand the scope of the relevant GDPR provisions beyond what was outlined in the Level 1 text. Even though these guidelines are non-binding, they can still be introduced as compulsory requirements at national level. It is therefore important that the guidelines provide clarity and help facilitate implementation, and do not undermine the existing Level 1 provisions that were set as part of this political agreement.

This is also true for the draft guidelines on transparency. While welcoming the Working Party’s recognition of the risk of information fatigue and how the layering of information could be used to avoid overloading customers with information, Insurance Europe warned that in many places the draft guidelines go beyond the original GDPR requirements.

The draft guidelines on the consent needed to process people’s data under the GDPR are very important for insurers. As explicit consent is the only legal basis for insurers under the GDPR to process sensitive data when entering into the insurance contract, it is very important that these guidelines provide legal certainty to insurers when carrying out their business. Insurance Europe therefore called for clarifications on several issues to provide legal certainty for insurers.

Press release

Position paper – transparency

Position paper – consent

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