Save the Date:

• Date: Tuesday, May 21, 2024, 3:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
• Location: The event will take place on the top floor of the Juridicum, Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna, Schottenbastei 10 - 16, 1010 Vienna.
• Link to program
• Link to registration

Event info:

In May 2016, after almost five years of negotiations between European Parliamentarians, Member States’ representatives, Commission experts, and intense interactions with the business community, civil society and international actors, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) entered into force. In May 2018, the GDPR became applicable in all EU Member States. The GDPR, often criticised for its far-reaching practical implications, is today the common law of data protection in Europe, has inspired the new Council of Europe Convention 108+ and has generated a so-called “Brussels effect” as it triggered a series of data protection laws and regulations in other parts of the world that all draw more or less on provisions and principles of the GDPR.

Now, after 6 years of application, it is time to assess whether the GDPR has stood the test of time. Have the visions of the lawmakers been fulfilled? Are data subjects today efficiently protected in their rights wherever they live in the EU or are there gaps in the system? Have Member States made good use of the GDPR when specifying it in their national legal systems or are they undermining its harmonising effect? Has the EU over- or underregulated the emerging European data space? And does the GDPR serve as a model for or a warning to new EU Digital Acts such as the AI Act? These issues will be at the heart of discussion among policymakers, supervisors, data protection activists, business representatives, attorneys and academics at our conference GDPR@6 organised at the occasion of the 6th anniversary of the GDPR’s applicability by the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna.

Program:

• 15:00: Opening remarks by
  • Professor Dr. Martin Selmayr,
    Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna, Former Secretary-General of the European Commission, Academic Director of the Centre for European Law at the University of Passau
  • Professor Dr. Nikolaus Forgó,
    Head of the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna
• 15:10: Keynote address by
  • Dr.in Alma Zadić, LL.M.,
    Minister for Justice of the Republic of Austria
    • Have EU Member States Made Good Use of the GDPR in Their National Legal Systems?
• 15:30-16:15: Part I – The perspective of users
  The Level of EU Data Protection: Sufficient, Too Little or Too Much?
  
        Panel moderated by
  • Univ.-Ass. Hande Özkayagan Prändl, 
    Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna
  with contributions from
  • Dr. Eugen Ehmann,
    Regierungspräsident of the region of Unterfranken
  • Prof. Dr. Hans-Georg Kamann,
    Partner at WilmerHale, Frankfurt am Main, Vice Chair, Antitrust and Competition Practice
  • Nicole Krug,
    Attorney of CARIAD SE Stuttgart/Mönsheim
  • Paul Nemitz,
    European Commission, Principal AdviserProvisional Programme as of 29 April
• Coffee break
• 16:30-17:15: Part II – The perspective of policymakers and supervisory authorities 
  Have We Really Overcome the Fragmentation of 27 Data Protection Laws?
        Keynote by
  • Jan Philipp Albrecht,
    President of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, former Member of the European Parliament and European Parliament Rapporteur for the General Data Protection Regulation
  followed by a panel, moderated by
  • Univ.-Ass. Mag. Adriana Winkelmeier, 
    Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna
  with contributions from
  • Dr. Horst Heberlein, 
    Data Protection Expert, formerly European Commission
  • Professor Dr. Thomas Hoeren,
    University of Münster
  • Barbara Thiel,
    Former State Commissioner of Data Protection of Lower Saxony
  • MMag. Elisabeth Wagner,
    Deputy Head of the Austrian Data Protection Authority
  • Thomas Zerdick,
    Head of Unit for Supervision and Enforcement at the European Data Protection Supervisor
• Coffee break
• 17:30-18:15: Part III – Perspectives for the Future
  The GDPR as a Model for the AI Act?
        Panel moderated by
  • Anke Zimmer-Helfrich,
    Editor-in-Chief of ZD (Zeitschrift für Datenschutz):
  with contributions from
  • Dr. Martin Braun,
    Partner at WilmerHale Frankfurt am Main
  • Professor Dr. Iris Eisenberger, 
    Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna
  • Professor Dr. Nikolaus Forgó,
    Head of the Department of Innovation and Digitalisation in Law of the University of Vienna
• 18:15: Closing remarks by
  • Professor Dr. Martin Selmayr,
    former Secretary-General of the European Commission, Academic Director of the Centre for European Law at the University of Passau
  • Is It Time for a Revision of the GDPR?
• 18:30: End of the conference