Privacy and Confidentiality in Exchange of Information Procedures: Some Uncertainties, Many Issues, but Few Solutions

Abstract

The overall aim of this article is to analyse the taxpayers’ rights

to confidentiality and privacy in exchange of information including the

new global standard of automatic exchange of information. Section 2 will

analyse the state of the art regarding the right to privacy and confidentiality in the OECD bilateral and multilateral instruments, in the Human Right Conventions and in case law by the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice. This section will also analyse the application of the right to privacy and confidentiality in practice mainly by identifying the problems of confidentiality and privacy arising in the disclosure of information, the exchange of trade secrets and the leak of information to the press and third parties. Subsequently, the authors explore the possibility to introduce a multilateral instrument to remedy these shortcomings.