Tuesday, November 23, 2010

An Industry Undoing European Federalism: The Case of Cookies

In 2010, the EU Parliament passed a law to protect internet users from invasive “cookies,” which track computer usage at the expense of privacy. The 27 E.U. states had to implement the directive, but as this involved discretion, the business sector feared at the time that the states “might interpret the law differently, creating a nightmare of conflicting standards.” In other words, business can be intolerant toward federalism.


The full essay is at "Essays on the E.U. Political Economy," available at Amazon. 

1. Paul Sonne and John W. Miller, “EU Chews onWeb Cookies,” The Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2010, pp. B1-2.