Interest group lobbying in the European Union: privacy, data protection and the right to be forgotten

Abstract

The issue of trust and control of data online has become critical for many European Union (EU) citizens in an era where we are increasingly reliant on digital platforms across a plethora of everyday activities. Indeed, the future of the EU’s Digital Single Market Policy is reliant on developing trust through robust legislation that ensures explicit control of data by EU citizens. This article explores the extent to which interest groups have been able to successfully achieve their goals through actions in the European Union institutional spaces that construct privacy and data protection legislation. Specifically, it investigates the intervention of interest groups utilising the ‘right to be forgotten’ (RTBF) in the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as a case study. The article shows that issue salience and conflict, as well as institutional politicisation and lobbying by a union of ‘strange bedfellows’ are important factors in determining interest group preference attainment and success and ultimately, who the winners and losers have been in the RTBF decision-making process.