Proposal to remove obstacles to the free movement of non-personal data in the European Union.

On 13 September 2017, the EU Commission published a draft regulation on a framework for the free flow of non-personal data in the European Union. Its aim is to help complete the Digital Single Market in the European Union. Obstacles to the free movement of non-personal data in the EU, particularly for data collection requirements, should be removed and prevented in the future. 

Special nature of statutory health insurance

In statutory health insurance, there is a wide range of company and statistical non-personal data. If the health insurance funds, their associations or self-governing bodies and other institutions at federal level commission the storage or processing of these databases, they may currently contain data localisation restrictions. This reflects the strict requirements that legislators place on social insurance when collecting, processing or using social data. 

In addition, German law equates business and trade secrecy with social data. It should therefore be ensured that trade and business secrets, equivalent to personal data under national law, are not covered by this draft Regulation. This must be clarified in the proposal. 

What next?

The proposal for the regulation will now be discussed in the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union. The regulation is expected to be adopted before the end of the parliamentary term by spring 2019. 

The comments paper can be read here (German only).