Give Your Views to the EU—Now!

By Mark Roberti

April 7, 2008—The potential of radio frequency identification to deliver value to companies and consumers across Europe is at risk. If you conduct business in Europe and think RFID might help you improve efficiencies, or if you sell RFID systems in Europe, you need to act—and soon.

The European Commission, which has been examining the privacy implications of RFID for a couple of years, has published draft recommendations that will likely reduce the business and consumer benefits of RFID (see European Commission Works on RFID Policy and Europe's RFID Privacy Policy Might Be a Mistake). But before the European Union adopts these proposals, there's still time to convince them they risk throwing the baby out with the bathwater.


The commission is currently soliciting feedback. The deadline to comment is April 25. You know opponents of RFID will be out there saying the proposals don't go far enough. So it's imperative that end users, vendors and anyone else associated with RFID submit comments before the industry is saddled with regulatory issues rendering RFID untenable in any consumer—and potentially supply chain—application.

It's easy to make your opinion count—there's an online form that will just take a few minutes to fill out. Here's a link.

The form presents each article of the draft, then provides a place for you to enter your opinion. Article 1 is an overview of the recommendations, and Article 2 provides the definitions used in those recommendations. Many, however are overly broad.

A "public place," for instance, is defined as "any area, including non-stationary means of public transport such as buses, planes, railways or ships, which can be accessed at all times or at certain times by everybody." So if you tag something that ends up in the cargo hold of an airplane, is that plane considered a public place?