Do We Need the ‘Use of Equipment’ as a Factor for the Territorial Applicability of the EU Data Protection Regime?

The EU data protection regime is the most influential and one of the strictest data privacy laws in the world. Therefore, expanding of its territorial scope may have far reaching consequences, as it de facto entails imposing additional obligations on foreign companies. The aim of this chapter is to compare Art. 4(1)(c) of the Directive 95/46 with the relevant provision of the General Data Protection Regulation – i.e. Art. 3(2). Any provision expanding territorial scope of law beyond any given territory should provide clarity as to the scope and should be based on a real connection between processing operations and the applicable law. In this chapter I argue that the information society is at the same time an equipment-based society, which may result in almost universal application of Art. 4(1)(c) Directive 95/46. In this light, its successor – Art. 3(2) GDPR – seems to be a moderate solution.