Dossier

Digital rights post-Brexit

Regulatory divergence in the UK and the EU

Since leaving the EU, the United Kingdom has new autonomy to explore differing approaches to regulating the digital economy and is seeking to deliver the potential benefits of regulatory divergence. This dossier considers the emerging issues within each major area of policy intervention – data protection, content policy and competition – to help policy makers in Europe and the UK begin a discussion about the potential effects of EU-UK divergence, to begin to think about where co-operation may still be needed, and, if this cannot be achieved, the best way to deal with the impacts they may be dealt with.

Policy papers

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Institutional challenges for the UK and EU digital policy: Meeting the need for regulatory capacity and regulatory co-operation

Policy paper
The highly technical and quickly evolving nature of the digital industry requires significant regulatory capacity. It also requires significant global co-operation, as the harms that emerge online often cross borders and are linked to entities that are partly or entirely located outside of the jurisdiction where the harm occurs. This paper analyses both the One-Stop-Shop in the General Data Protection Regulation (often called "UK GDPR") and the Proposed EU AI Act and Standardisation.
By Jim Killock
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Strengthening competition policy for effective regulation of digital platforms: Contrasting EU and UK approaches

Policy paper
This paper analyses the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA), which imposes a set of specific ex ante obligations on the largest digital players, including  interoperability and data access. It also analyses the UK's Digital Markets Unit (DMU), and whether it could be designed as a more flexible set of regulatory tools enabling a targeted approach to identifying emerging competition issues and market power in the digital field.
By Jim Killock and Jiri Mnuk
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UK data protection reform and the future of the European data protection framework

Policy paper
The UK Government has indicated its desire to diverge from the European data protection regime. This brief considers some of the main areas of divergence in the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill (DPDI Bill), the latest iteration of an effort to reform data protection to "free up the use of data" to "unleash its value across the economy" and for the UK to "operate as the world's data hub."
By Jim Killock , Ana Stepanova , Han-Wei Low and Mariano delli Santi

Blog posts

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Competition policy after Brexit

Blog post
Post Brexit, the UK and EU’s rules on digital monopolies are diverging. Both understand the consequences of digital monopoly power, whether that is in online harms (behaviour online which may hurt a person physically or emotionally), abuses of privacy, or boosting of profits at the expense of smaller rivals and business customers. However, competition policy in both jurisdictions has lagged behind the changes that digitisation has brought to many industries. This post considers the diverse interventions in the EU and the UK that attempt to address digital monopoly power, namely the new EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) and of the UK Competition and Markets Authority.
By Jim Killock
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Big Tech Regulation: Contrasting UK and EU approaches to content moderation

Blog post
The differing approaches to the regulation of big tech in the UK and EU highlight some crucial questions for law-makers in both jurisdictions. The EU’s Digital Services Act and the UK’s Online Safety Bill both tackle the need to restrict certain content online and create a framework for regulating online platforms. The measures affect the underlying fundamentals of Internet services in very different ways, which could impact their operation across borders. This blog post considers how current policy choices in these two laws may influence future policy directions and ultimately the whole Internet ecosystem.
By Dr. Monica Horten

Cooperation partner

Open Rights Group (ORG) is a UK-based privacy, data and digital rights campaigning organisation. Founded in 2005 by a group of grassroots activists, we now have over 20,000 members and supporters and 13 local groups across the UK. Our members and supporters inform our policy, power our campaigns and help us bring about change.

We uphold human rights in the digital age. We condemn and work against repressive laws or systems that deny people these rights.

  1. We DEFINE emerging harms and abuses through our research and investigation.
  2. We PERSUADE allies and adversaries through our policy advocacy.
  3. We EQUIP civil society partners to incorporate digital advocacy into their work through our coalition building.
  4. We MOBILISE our members and supporters across the UK through our public campaigns.
  5. We CONFRONT threats to our fundamental rights through our litigation.

We campaign, lobby, go to court – whatever it takes to build and support a movement for freedom in the digital age. We work across three main areas:

  • Combating Big Tech and Platform Power
  • Combating State Intrusion into Rights Online
  • Promoting the Rights of Marginalised and Minority Communities against Digital Threats

ORG was heavily involved in the process leading up to the enactment of the Data Protection Act 2018 (“DPA 2018”), and we worked on issues such as data retention, the use of personal data in the COVID-19 pandemic, data protection enforcement, and online advertising. We have successfully litigated a number of data protection and privacy cases, ranging from challenges to the lawfulness of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act at the European Court of Human Rights, to being a party at the Watson case against UK data retention, to the recent challenge against the Immigration Exemption in the Data Protection Act.

Contacts

© Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung e.V.
Schumannstraße 8
10117 Berlin
T +49 (30) 285 34-0
F +49 (30) 285 34-109
www.boell.de
info@boell.de

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