What's still wrong with the GDPR? Proposals for cutting red tape and boosting european competitiveness

Europe's competitiveness will increasingly depend on how companies can analyse and use data. With the report What's still wrong with GDPR? the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise wants to highlight the challenges facing the business community in the area of data protection.

The General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, needs to be reviewed in order to be relevant and justified. Measures are needed to counter unnecessary bureaucracy, legal uncertainty, and unjustified restrictions on legitimate activities. During the years that the GDPR has been applied, the protection of personal data has been strengthened but are the the costs and missed opportunities for business and society at large proportionate and desirable?

The right to the protection of personal data is not an absolute right; It must be understood in terms of its role in society and balanced against other fundamental rights in accordance with the principle of proportionality. It follows that the right to the protection of personal data must be weighed against conflicting interests. This applies not only to the rights and freedoms of others, such as freedom of expression and information and the freedom to conduct a business, but also to the need for the free flow of personal data.

The authors Martin Brinnen and Daniel Westman have been commissioned to describe what needs to be done to achieve relevant data protection, through applicable and proportionate rules that enable innovation, international competitiveness, and competition on a level playing field.

The report contains proposals that could be included in the European Commission's evaluation of the GDPR in 2024 or implemented in national legislation and by data protection authorities at national and European level.