Adaptation of the legislation in the digital field: parliamentary Bill No. 255 will be transformed into a government bill

The parliamentary Bill No. 255 amending various provisions on digital matters (two articles) was tabled in the Public Session on 6 October 2022 and referred to the Committee on Digital Development. It was adopted on 7 December 2022.

By letter of 14 April 2023, the Government informed the National Council of its favourable opinion on the transformation of Bill No. 255 (possibly amended) into a Governmeent bill, which must be tabled by 12 June 2024, in accordance with Article 67(a) of the Constitution (Source: https://legimonaco.mc/news/202...)

Purpose of Bill No. 255:

The text is intended to supplement Law No. 1.383 of 2 August 2011 for a Digital Principality, as amended, as well as Law No. 1.483 of 17 December 2019 on Digital Identity, by inserting new definitions.

The purpose is "above all, to initiate reflection on this particularly technical and evolving subject, in order to arrive, at the end of the legislative process [...], at a modern and innovative legal text, responding to developments and the needs of practice". (Explanatory Memorandum, p. 3)

The objective is "to develop, in the long term, a general framework for the provision of data intermediation services that meets the requirements of confidentiality and protection". (Explanatory Memorandum, p. 6).

At the same time, in the framework of digital technology, Bill No. 1039 on the use of a digital registration device on a shared register (currently under consideration) aims to facilitate the management of unlisted companies by dematerialising their securities.

Summary:

The text proposes to make the following changes in the digital field:

— Strengthening of digital identity guarantees (trusted management):

• Authentication of avatars attached to a metaverse (amendment of Article 1 of Law No. 1.383 for a Digital Principality). The aim is to clarify the notion of reliability of the digital identity that could be attached to an avatar to allow the development of the various potentialities offered by the metaverse in a secure environment. The avatars "with weak authentication", "with substantial authentication" and "with high authentication" would thus be newly defined. Law No. 1.528 of 7 July 2022 enshrined the "avatar" and the "metaverse" in Monegasque law.
• New "remote identity verification service" (amendment of Article 1 of Law No. 1.483 on Digital Identity), with a "substantial" or "high" level of guarantee (inspired by the French ANSSI's requirements framework).

— New concept of "oracle on distributed registry technology":

• This mechanism consists in integrating within the distributed registry technology (e.g. Blockchain type) data from an external source (transmitted by: a trusted third party - e.g. a notary or a bailiff -; or software - e.g. harvesting weather or aerial information), in particular for the execution of a "protocole contractuel numérique" (smart contract) (amendment of Article 1 of Law No. 1.383 for a Digital Principality).

— Modification of the scope of data intermediation services:

• The intermediation service (sharing of data between data subjects or data holders with data users) is extended to personal data (amendment of Article 1 of Law No. 1.383). Data intermediation is a new core business in data sharing between companies for a fee.

Monaco is attentive to the data strategy developed by the European Union. In this context, the Data Governance Act (DGA), which will be applicable from 24 September 2023, aims to promote the sharing of personal and non-personal data by setting up intermediation structures.

This regulation provides for :

• a framework as well as technical and legal assistance facilitating the re-use of certain categories of protected public sector data (confidential business information, intellectual property, personal data);
• mandatory certification for data intermediation service providers;
• voluntary certification for organisations practising data altruism.