The Federal Data Protection Commissioner and Freedom of Information (BfDI) the professor Ulrich Kelber, asks now that the Telecommunications Act ( TKG ) and the Telemedia Act ( TMG ) are adjusted to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): also after 1000 of full application, there a lack of TKG and TMG to the GDPR of urgent clarifications. Practically, this involves a high legal insecurity for companies and consumers when it is about observing personal data protection. 

Both the legislation are basic for the e-communication. Many TKG disposals can not be applied anymore or are not enough, but they are still in the legal text. In case of existing data, the enforceability of the paragraph must be previously verified with great legal effort. 

The legal situation with cookies on the Internet is confused as well: the german TMG and the european data protection directive applicable impose different requirements. 

The result of this insecurity is a flood of banners on cookies which annoy users. 

The BfDI has reported since years this deficiency, for example in its annual activity report. 

The legislature is currently planning to remove the data protection rules from the TKG and TMG and transfer them into a so-called Telecommunications Telemedia Data Protection Act ( TTDSG ). At the same time, the Electronic Communications Code is to be implemented in national legislation as part of a Telecommunications Modernisation Act ( TKModG ).

This should be effectively completed by 21 December 2020. It is unclear whether the TKModG and TTDSG will be approved before the federal elections. This could lead to significant problems, as both laws must come into force at the same time. Otherwise, the privacy of electronic communications would be at risk.

SOURCE: AUTORITA’ PER LA PROTEZIONE DEI DATI DELLA GERMANIA – BfDI