Bitkom views on EDPB Guidelines on Codes of Conduct and Monitoring Bodies under Regulation 2016/679

On 12 February 2019, the European Data Protection Board published their new Guidelines on Codes of Conduct and Monitoring Bodies. Codes of conduct, like certification, are an important part in the framework of the GDPR and one element to facilitate and demonstrate compliance with the new legislation. And while we welcome the Guidelines we also see need for some adjustments. In our view, EU-wide codes should be included and promoted more prominently and the conditions for the approval of such Codes of Conduct should be streamlined to achieve more scale and more consistent protection across Europe. Furthermore, we need flexible and harmonised rules for monitoring bodies. We are therefore grateful for the opportunity to provide some detailed comments on the Guidelines. You can download our position paper here.