Newsletter N .6 | February 2021

Dear Project Partners, dear Fellows,
In this sixth issue of the FRICoRe Newsletter, we are pleased to propose:

1. An update on the Transnational Training Workshops
2. An overview of the Transnational Training Workshop on Data Protection 

1. Transnational Training Workshops: a snapshot of the situation.

Despite the unprecedented situation, the FRICoRe training programme continued its course thanks to the conversion of the planned activities into online training events.

After the workshop on Non-Discrimination held completely remotely, another workshop was also held in online mode, which however did not prevent the successful implementation of the methodological approach that characterizes the FRICoRe Project. The exchange of knowledge and practices among the participants was not in any way undermined by the novel format.

The “Transnational Training Workshops” held so far are listed below.

The "Transnational Training Workshops" module will be followed by three "Training the Trainers" workshops specifically intended for judicial trainers selected among qualified judges.

2. An overview of the Transnational Training Workshops on Data Protection.

The workshop “Data Protection and Fundamental rights: the new paradigms for judicial practice”, held remotely on 4 and 5 February 2021, was organized by the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences (INP-PAN) represented in the FRICoRe Project by Dr. Mateusz Grochowski.

The training event addressed the impact of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights upon data protection. By focusing on the ongoing judicial dialogue among national and European Courts, the workshop aimed to enable all participants to thoroughly analyse the scope of application of the CFREU in this field, with special attention to the right to an effective remedy under Article 47 CFREU, as well as the impact of principles of effectiveness, proportionality, dissuasiveness and the relationship between administrative and judicial enforcement in the context of data protection law.

To begin with, the FRICoRe project had the honour of hosting the keynote speech on “Idea of consent in EU data protection law” delivered by Advocate General Prof. Maciej Szpunar, Court of Justice of the European Union. 

Two training sessions were subsequently held, focused on the use of corrective remedies and effective protection in cross-border infringements respectively. Both sessions were opened by a roundtable on the key topics held in the plenary room, followed by working groups engaged in solving practical cases held in specific Zoom breakout rooms.  

The FRICoRe Project is grateful to all those who feed the discussion both as speakers and by raising issues from the audience. Special thanks go to the speakers of both roundtables, namely Marc Bosmans (President of the Belgian Market Court), Gianluca Forlani (Permanent Representation of Italy to EU (Justice and Internal Affairs), Pedro Santos Azevedo (Lawyer and collaborator at the Research Centre for Regulation Law and Policy, University of Coimbra, Portugal), Federica Casarosa (European University Institute, Italy) and Silvio Ranise (Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK), Italy) as for the first roundtable chaired by Professor Aurelia Colombi Ciacchi from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. And besides, Olivier Matter (Team leader for International Cooperation at the European Data Protection Supervisor), Edwige Nania (Legal Affairs Department at the Italian Data Protection Authority), Maria Magierska (European University Institute, Italy) and Spyridoula Karyda (Greek Council of State, Associate Councilor Judge) who took part in the second roundtable chaired by Professor Fabienne Jault-Seseke from the Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France.

Finally, a third session was specifically devoted to the intersections between data and consumer protection. The facets explored thanks to the contribution of academics and practitioners range from “Algorithmic consumer transactions and the limits of contract law” (Mireia Artigot i Golobardes - Pompeu Fabra University, Spain) to “Beyond consumer vulnerability: digital asymmetry and the need for a new governance” (Kasper Drążewski - European Consumer Organization, BEUC), and again from “Algorithmic choice of consumers” (Sandra Passinhas - University of Coimbra - Portugal) to the question “Can consumer contract law remedies ensure effective data protection?” (Chiara Angiolini - University of Trento, Italy) and, finally, to “Profiling and personalization – efficiency assessment of protection models under GDPR and Unfair Market Practices Directive” (Katarzyna Południak-Gierz - Jagiellonian University, Poland).

Before the workshop, all the trainees were provided with a set of dedicated training materials, including the FRICoRe Casebook "Effective Data Protection and Fundamental Rights", circulated among the workshop participants in its first draft edition (January 2021).

TTW on Data Protection, 4-5 February 2021
Pictures from a plenary session and a working group, respectively