Olivier Fréget is a partner at Allen & Overy Paris heading the Paris EU & Competition team. He hold a post graduate degree in Private International Law and in International Business Transactions (University of Paris I) and a degree in Economics and International Relations (ILERI).
Olivier has specialised in EU and competition law since the very beginning of his career in 1990
David J. Dickinson is an Attorney-Advisor for the Office of Transportation and Air Quality within the Office of Air and Radiation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, DC.
He received his J.D from George Washington University, National Law Center in Washington, D.C., and his B.A. in History and Political Science from the University of California, San Diego.
The {Conseil Constitutionnel} (French Constitutional Council) approves the principle of a carbon tax scheme, but obliges the Government to review its scope.
In The Journal of Regulation the summaries’ translation are done by the Editors and not by the authors
ENGLISH:
Nowadays, it’s necessary to define, initially, the framework of an impact survey. An impact survey is an analysis estimating the economic consequences of a bill (in Europe or in the US) in order to limit, reduce or compensate for negative impacts. It requires the prior adoption of the text.
ITALIAN
Nei giorni nostri, è necessario definire, inizialmente, la struttura di una valutazione d’impatto. Una valutazione d’impatto è uno studio che cerca di fare una stima delle conseguenze economiche dell’adozione di una legge (in Europa o negli Stati Uniti) in modo tale da limitare, ridurre o compensare le sue conseguenze negative. Tuttavia questo richiede l’adozione preliminare del testo.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - ICANN, private regulator of Internet domain names, had a few months ago, embowed its depleted alphabet to letters with accents to closer to natural language domain names. A jump is crossed. On 13 June, 2012, the ICANN has published the list of the first private applications for the allocation of new generic extensions, does not corresponding to countries (.fr for France) or a typology (edu for Education), but to specific entities, including institutions or companies. The filing cost $ 185,000. 1930 claims have already been filed. Thus, some of the names are closely contested: for example "app", which evokes both "apple" and "application", was immediately requested by several companies.
The European Parliament vetoed the agreement between the European Union and the United States on the transfer of financial data from the SWIFT network, on the grounds that such transfers violate privacy rights and are disproportionate to their aim of fighting terrorism.
As part of a procedure initiated for anti-competitive behaviors, the European Commission has three times requested, between the 13th of March and the 11th of November 2019, from Facebook the communication of information, reitarated in a decision in May 2020.
Facebook contests it alleging that the requested documents would contain sensitive personal information that a transmission to the Commission would make accessible to a too broad number of observers, while "the documents requested under the contested decision were identified on the basis of wideranging search terms, (...) there is strong likelihood that many of those documents will not be necessary for the purposes of the Commission’s investigation".
The contestation therefore evokes the violation of the principles of necessity and proportionality but also of due process because these probatory elements are collected without any protection and used afterwards. Moreover, Facebook invokes what would be the violation of a right to the respect of personal data of its employees whose the emails are transferred.
The court reminds that the office of the judge is here constraint by the condition of emergency to adopt a temporary measure, acceptable by the way only if there is an imminent and irreversible damage. It underlines that public authorities benefit of a presumption of legality when they act and can obtain and use personal data since this is necessary to their function of public interest. Many allegations of Facebook are rejected as being hypothetical.
But the Court analyzes the integrality of the evoked principles with regards with the very concrete case. But, crossing these principles and rights in question, the Court estimates that the European Commission did not respect the principle of necessity and proportionality concerning employees' very sensitive data, these demands broadening the circle of information without necessity and in a disproportionate way, since the information is very sensitive (like employees' health, political opinions of third parties, etc.).
It is therefore appropriate to distinguish among the mass of required documents, for which the same guarantee must be given in a technique of communication than in a technic of inspection, those which are transferable without additional precaution and those which must be subject to an "alternative procedure" because of their nature of very sensitive personal data.
This "alternative procedure" will take the shape of an examination of documents considered by Facebook as very sensitive and that it will communicate on a separate electronic support, by European Commission's agents, that we cannot a priori suspect to hijack law. This examination will take place in a "virtual data room" with Facebook's attorneys. In case of disagreement between Facebook and the investigators, the dispute could be solved by the director of information, communication and medias of the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission.
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We can draw three lessons from this ordinance:
This decision shows that Procedural Law and Compliance Law are not opposed. Some often say that Compliance guarantees the efficacy and that Procedure guarantees fundamental rights, the protection of the one must result in the diminution of the guarantee of the other. It is false. As this decision shows it, through the key notion of sensitive personal data protection (heart of Compliance Law) and the care for procedure (equivalence between communication and inspection procedures; contradictory organization of the examination of sensitive personal data), we see once again that two branches of Law express the same care, have the same objective: protecting people.
The judge is able to immediately find an operational solution, proposing "an alternative procedure" axed around the principle of contradictory and conciliating Commision's and Facebook's interests has shown that it was able to bring alternative solutions to the one it suspends the execution, appropriate solution to the situation and which equilibrate the interest of both parties.
The best Ex Ante is the one which anticipate the Ex Post by the pre-constitution of evidence. Thus the firm must be able to prove later the concern that it had for human rights, here of employees, to not being exposed to sanctioning pubic authorities. This Ex Ante probatory culture is required not only from firms but also from public authorities which also have to give justification of their action.
Margot Sève is a lawyer who holds a Master degree in Business Law from the University of Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas. She also studied Chinese in Paris (INALCO) and business law in China (...)
News Summary: In its ordinance of 13th of October 2020, Conseil national du logiciel libre (called Health Data Hub), the Conseil d'Etat (French Administrative Supreme Court) has determined the legal rules governing the possibility to give the management of sensitive data on a platform to a non-europeans firm, through the specific case of the decree and of the contract by which the management of the platform centralizing health data to fight against Covid-19 has been given to the Irish subsidiary of an American firm, Microsoft.
The Conseil d'Etat used firstly CJEU case law, especially the decision of 16th of July 2020, called Schrems 2, in the light of which it was interpreted and French Law and the contract linking GIP and
The Conseil d'Etat concluded that it was not possible to transfer this data to United-Sates, that the contract could be only interpreted like this and that decree and contract's modifications secured this. But it observed that the risk of obtention by American public authorities was remaining.
Because public order requires the maintenance of this platform and that it does not exist for the moment other technical solution, the Conseil d'Etat maintained the principle of its management by Microsoft, until a European operator is found. During this, the control by the CNIL (French Data Regulator), whose the observations has been taken into consideration, will be operated.
We can retain three lessons from this great decision:
There is a perfect continuum between Ex Ante and Ex Post, because by a referred, the Conseil d'Etat succeed in obtaining an update of the decree, a modification of the contractual clauses by Microsoft and of the words of the Minister in order to, as soon as possible, the platform is managed by an European operator. Thus, because it is Compliance Law, the relevant time of the judge is the future.
The Conseil d'Etat put the protection of people at the heart of its reasoning, what is compliant to the definition of Compliance Law. It succeeded to solve the dilemma: either protecting people thanks to the person to fight against the virus, or protecting people by preventing the centralization of data and their captation by American public authorities. Through a "political" decision, that is an action for the future, the Conseil found a provisional solution to protect people against the disease and against the dispossession of their data, requiring that an European solution is found.
The Conseil d'Etat emphasized the Court of Justice of The European Union as the alpha and omega of Compliance Law. By interpreting the contract between a GIP (Public interest Group) and an Irish subsidy of an American group only with regards to the case law of the Court of Justice of European Union, the Conseil d'Etat shows that sovereign Europe of Data can be built. And that courts are at the heart of this.
We know the importance of the credit mortgage c in the United States and the place of its failure in the financial crisis of 2008 and those that erupted. The refinancing market of the real estate loans is held by three operators, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This market is regulated and overseen by the Federal Housing Agency (FHFA). This agency has the power to adjust as needed to lower the principal amount of mortgage debt if market value of purchased assets decline also. But he Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) sought for this purpose by the same firms of refinancing acting at the request of the Government, refused to allow such an adjustment. On July 31, 2012, the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States is expressed "concern" of such refusal, which risk to distressed companies of refinancing of mortgages, including the rescue has already cost so much at the first time.
