EU data protection rules hit by surprise legal objection

US tech companies such as Facebook and Google face the prospect of dealing with 28 different European data protection watchdogs after one of the EU’s chief legal advisers raised a surprise objection to a proposed data protection law.

The tech industry had lobbied for a key provision in the EU proposal, known as the “one-stop shop” rule, which would allow companies to submit to a single privacy regulator rather than competing national ones. That provision was meant to minimize the burden of complying with the new rules. But Hubert Legal, head of the legal service for the European Council, which represents the EU’s national governments, said the rule -- while helping companies -- undermined citizens’ human rights. “The problem is the results you get in terms of respecting the functioning of justice and people’s rights is actually a very bad outcome a very bad result and as your legal adviser I have to tell you it’s a bad outcome,” Hubert told EU justice ministers meeting in Brussels.