PageFair writes to all EU Member States about the ePrivacy Regulation

This week PageFair wrote to the permanent representatives of all Member States of the European Union in support for the proposed ePrivacy Regulation.

Our remarks were tightly bounded by our expertise in online advertising technology. We do not have an opinion on how the proposed Regulation will impact other areas.

The letter addresses four issues:

1) PageFair supports the ePrivacy Regulation as a positive contribution to online advertising, provided a minor amendment is made to paragraph 1 of Article 8.

2) We propose an amendment to Article 8 to allow privacy-by-design advertising. This is because the current drafting of Article 8 will prevent websites from displaying privacy-by-design advertising.

3) We particularly support the Parliament’s 96th and 99th amendments. These are essential to enable standard Internet Protocol connections to be made in many useful contexts that do not impact of privacy.

4) We show that tracking is not necessary for the online advertising & media industry to thrive. As we note in the letter, behavioural online advertising currently accounts for only a quarter of European publishers’ gross revenue.

Read the letter here

The digital economy requires a foundation of trust to enable innovation and growth. The enormous growth of adblocking (to 615 million active devices) across the globe proves the terrible cost of not regulating. We are witnessing the collapse of the mechanism by which audiences support the majority of online news reports, entertainment videos, cartoons, blogs, and cat videos that make the Web so valuable and interesting. Self-regulation, lax data protection and enforcement have resulted in business practices that promise a bleak future for European digital publishers.

Therefore, we commend the Commission and Parliament’s work thus far, and wish the Council (of Ministers of the Member States) well in their deliberations.