Gathering Data for Criminal Investigations After the e-Evidence Regulation: Future Challenges and Solutions

After years of discussions and negotiations, the e-Evidence Regulation and its related directive, were finally adopted on 12 July 2023. The e-Evidence Regulation will start applying in 2026, but requires adoption of national law and putting in place of a decentralised IT system for exchange of e-evidence. Its functioning depends also on concluding the CLOUD Act agreement with the US. The panel will examine these open questions and their current state of play. In addition, many questions regarding access to data by law enforcement authorities remain unsolved after the e-Evidence Regulation. For instance, data retention, encryption and real-time interception of data remain contentious questions, which are currently discussed by a High-Level Group (HLG) created by the European Commission and the Council. As this HLG will shortly make recommendations for the next legislature, this panel also aims to look into how these questions could be solved in the future, as they are likely to create further tensions once the e-Evidence Regulation becomes applicable.

• What are the duties of internet service providers and what is their effective role according to the new e-Evidence Regulation ? 
• What are the open issues left for the Member States and what kind of challenges do they offer for the effective gathering of electronic of evidence and protection of privacy?
• What is the state of play of the negotiations of the agreement with the US under the CLOUD Act and what kind of challenges are the negotiations are facing?
• What solutions can be elaborated for issues that remain outside of the scope of the e-Evidence Regulation but are nonetheless closely related to it (such as data retention, encryption and real-time interception)? 
• What opportunities and challenges does the new e-Evidence Regulation offer the defence?