L’UE veut rattraper son retard sur la révolution des RFID[en] 

In March 2007, the European Commission adopted a communication announcing further actions to address privacy-related concerns arising from the development of RFID, Radio Frequency Identification chips.

Three months later, in June, the Commission established an RFID Expert Group charged with giving advice on the legal measures needed to increase data protection in applications supported by RFID (see our Links Dossier).

In February 2008, Information Society Commissioner Viviane Reding issued a draft recommendation defining the guidelines to be followed to avoid abuses or misuses of private information collected through RFID devices. Stakeholders were invited to present their positions by 25 April 2008.

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) chips have already been deployed on a massive scale in Japan, the United States, China and South Korea. They are applied in several different sectors, ranging from transport (luggage retrieval) to healthcare (for safer blood transfusion) and from pharmaceuticals (against counterfeiting) to retailing (replacing bar codes).

By allowing objects to exchange information among themselves, RFID chips have the potential to create an "Internet of things" – for example, a fridge could automatically communicate with a shop to order eggs once they are finished. The world market for these devices in 2007 has been estimated at 4.2 billion euros, with the Commission predicting  it could grow five-fold within ten years.

Private concerns dominate

European deployment of this revolutionary technology is still lagging behind the other main global actors. "We are seeing things being shaped, but they are shaped outside Europe," warned Gerald Santucci, a Commission official in charge of RFID.

One reason for the low penetration of RFID in Europe is the diffident approach towards this new technology, generally first considered in terms of its legal and privacy-related risks, and only afterwards for its wide-ranging economic and social benefits. As a result, instead of exploring ways to deploy the devices, the debate on RFID in the EU mainly focuses on data protection (see EurActiv 26/02/08).

"We are privileged because Europe is where this issue is felt more strongly," underlined Santucci. Paradoxically, "Europe has the best legal framework to tackle privacy-related concerns," he explained, mentioning the existing Data Protection Directive and E-Privacy Directive . Nevertheless, new legislative action in the field is expected "by the end of the year," he said during a conference in Brussels on 12 March. The E-Privacy Directive itself is under review to take into consideration new concerns which have emerged with the latest technologies.

Lack of awareness and a fragmented market

Another European shortfall in the uptake of RFID is low awareness of their benefits and even their very existence by the majority of citizens and SMEs. The Commission is about to launch an Information Day on RFID, likely to be held on 23 April.

Moreover, the European market remains fragmented, with different approaches developed at national level and wide intra-EU differences regarding overall knowledge and development of the new technology.

To tackle this structural deficit, Brussels will launch a "thematic network" this year aimed at making stakeholders discuss common approaches, including EU standards to develop the new technology more quickly and more safely. 800,000 euro from the EU budget have been made available for this purpose. 

The successful establishment of GSM standards for mobile telephony has shown that "Europe can and should be able to affirm its identity on standards," added Santucci.

Speaking at a conference on RFID in Brussels, the European Commission's head of unit for RFID-related activities, Gerald Santucci, said: "Europe is good at research but not good at deploying results of research. Things are being shaped, but outside Europe".

"It is imperative to involve SMEs in the deployment of RFID," underlined Anthony Furness from the European Centre for Automatic Identification and Data Capture (AIDC ). "We definitely agree we should better inform SMEs of what RFID can bring them," replied Mariette Wennmacher of  NORMAPME , the association representing the interests of European SMEs in the field of standardisation.

ETSI , a European standardisation body, emphasised the importance of developing compatible devices across Europe to exploit the benefits of a bigger common market. "There are still too many fragmented landscapes of non-interoperable proposals, but this is changing," said Patrick Guillemin, in charge of RFID at ETSI. 

Humberto Moran of the IT firm  Open Source Innovation  called for the new thematic network promoted by the Commission to be able to "manage the forces that prevent innovation" and avoid "over-standardisation and over-regulation".

Christopher Thomas, CEO of ConstructRFID , a British consultancy, explained some of the benefits RFID could bring to small enterprises. Faced with new safety requirements and higher complexity of the supply chain, "RFID can provide visibility to all sides involved (supplier and SME)," by allowing easier identification of origin, design and packaging of a product.

The agricultural sector could also benefit from the deployment of RFID "through the monitoring and tracking of feeds, seeds, irrigation" as well as "through veterinary interventions [and] collecting data on distribution," according to a project being developed by the University of Manchester.