The regulation will cover providers of electronic mail services to the extent that such providers wish to apply for approval as viewing clients for “Digital Post” from public senders. Thus, this enables the establishment of a new market for the provision of commercial viewing clients.

Bill to amend the Act on Digital Post from public senders (Transfer of Digital Post controllership, strategic ownership, and decision-making powers to the Agency for Digitisation, establishment of viewing clients, and relocation of citizen and enterprise post)

The Bill and its associated Orders and affiliation agreements stem from a new setup for the digital public postal system, called Digital Post, in conjunction with the system transition from “Digital Post 2” to “Next Generation Digital Post”.

The intention of the Bill is that, in the upcoming solution, system responsibility for the postal solution will be transferred back to the Agency for Digitisation. With the proposed legal basis, the Agency for Digitisation will be the data controller for administration of the postal solution. See §§ 2 and 2a of the Bill.

When enterprises and public authorities use the postal solution, they themselves are data controllers within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation. This provides legal continuity. The Agency for Digitisation is the data processor for the enterprises and public authorities when they send and potentially store personal data in the postal solution. The Agency for Digitisation’s data processing on behalf of the data controllers will be regulated in two forthcoming Orders that will be issued on the legal basis of the Bill. See § 2a, paragraphs 3–6

of the Bill.

As part of the transition from “Digital Post 2” to “Next Generation Digital Post”, the existing digital post shall be moved from the old system to the new system. In order to create the necessary legal basis for relocation of citizen and enterprise digital post from one provider to another provider of the postal solution, the Minister for Finance needs to be authorised to issue rules on the matter. Such authorisation will be provided in an upcoming Order. See § 10c of the Bill.

The new setup also entails changes to the regulation of citizens’ and enterprises’ ability to access Digital Post from public senders. Thus, it enables the establishment of a market for the provision of commercial viewing clients, i.e. private actors who have applied for and been approved to establish and operate user interfaces for viewing Digital Post from public senders.

Commercial viewing clients shall conclude an affiliation agreement with the Agency for Digitisation in which requirements for technical, security, and commercial aspects are stipulated. The affiliation agreement may potentially have a possibility of compensation to be paid to the commercial viewing clients for public service obligations that they may have. See §§ 10a and 10b of the Bill.