Abstract
In a recent judgment the CJEU found the Data Retention Directive to be incompatible with the rights to privacy and data protection under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. However, the Court’s interpretation of these fundamental rights needs further development, especially with regard to their respective scopes. While the Court declared the EU Directive to be invalid, there remain questions with regard to the Member States’ national implementation measures, which remain in force. Nevertheless, they do no longer comply with EU law and therefore need to be repealed or altered substantively. While it should be for the national legislator to achieve this, it might be necessary for service providers and citizens to challenge these provisions before the competent national courts.
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Notes
- 1.
Joined Cases C-293/12 and 594/12 Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger, Judgment of 8 April 2014, not yet reported.
- 2.
Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC, OJ 2006 L 105/54.
- 3.
Terhechte, Rechtsangleichung zwischen Gemeinschafts- und Unionsrecht – die Richtlinie über die Vorratsdatenspeicherung vor dem EuGH, Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 2009, 199.
- 4.
Biermann, Betrayed by our own data, Zeit Online of 26 March 2011, available at: http://www.zeit.de/digital/datenschutz/2011-03/data-protection-malte-spitz/komplettansicht; Digitale Gesellschaft, The life of National Councillor Balthasar Glättli under surveillance, available at: https://www.digitale-gesellschaft.ch/dr.html.
- 5.
Case C-301/06 Ireland v Parliament and Council [2009] ECR I-593.
- 6.
Constitutional Court of Romania, Decision no. 1258 of 9 October 2009, available at: http://www.legi-internet.ro/fileadmin/editor_folder/pdf/decision-constitutional-court-romania-data-retention.pdf; Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Judgment of 2 March 2010, 1 BvR 256/08, English press release available at: http://www.bundesverfassungsgericht.de/pressemitteilungen/bvg10-011en.html; Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic, Judgment of 22 March 2011, Pl. ÚS 24/10, available at: http://www.slidilove.cz/sites/default/files/dataretention_judgment_constitutionalcourt_czechrepublic.pdf.
- 7.
Cf. for example Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (note 6), paras. 183 and 185–187.
- 8.
Joined Cases C-92 and 93/09 Schecke and Eifert [2010] ECR I-11063, paras. 35 and 42.
- 9.
Joined Cases C-293/12 and 594/12 Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger (note 1), paras. 28–30.
- 10.
Ibid., paras. 34–37.
- 11.
Cf. Case C-5/88 Wachauf [1989] 2609, para. 18.
- 12.
Case C-283/11 Sky Österreich, Judgment of 22 January 2013, not yet published, para. 49.
- 13.
This line of assessment was also conducted in a judgment after Seitlinger in Case C-129/14 PPU Spasic, Judgment of 27 May 2014, not yet published, para. 58.
- 14.
Joined Cases C-293/12 and 594/12 Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger (note 1), para. 40.
- 15.
Ibid., para. 41.
- 16.
Ibid., paras. 49-58.
- 17.
Ibid., paras. 59–65.
- 18.
Ibid., paras. 66–68.
- 19.
Case C-291/12 Schwarz v Stadt Bochum, Judgment of 17 October 2013, not yet published; Joined Cases C-92 and 93/09 Schecke and Eifert (note 8).
- 20.
Joined Cases C-92 and 93/09 Schecke and Eifert (note 8), paras. 47 and 52; Case C-468/10 ASNEF [2011] I-12181, paras. 41 et seq; Case C-291/12 Schwarz v Stadt Bochum (note 19), paras. 24 et seq; However, in one case between private parties, where according to Article 51 para. 1 CFR the Charter does not apply, the Court mentioned – without any assessment of its scope or an interference – the right to data protection safeguarded by Article 8 CFR without reference to Article 7 of the Charter, cf. Case C-70/10 Scarlet Extended [2011] I-11959, para. 50.
- 21.
Joined Cases C-293/12 and 594/12 Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger (note 1), paras. 29 et seq.
- 22.
Ibid., paras. 33–35.
- 23.
Leander v. Sweden, Judgment of 26 March 1987, no. 9248/81, para. 48; Rotaru v. Romania, Judgment of 4 May 2000, no. 28341/95, para. 46.
- 24.
Explanations Relating to the Charter of Fundamental Rights, OJ 2007 C 303/17.
- 25.
Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, OJ 1995 L 281/31.
- 26.
Kingreen, Article 8, in: Calliess/Ruffert, EUV/AEUV, 4th ed., Munich 2011, MN. 1.
- 27.
Cf. inter alia Tzanou, Data protection as a fundamental right next to privacy? ‘Reconstructing’ a not so new right, International Data Privacy Law 3 (2013), 88; Kranenborg, in: Peers et al. (eds.), The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – A commentary, Oxford/Portland 2013, MN. 08.21-08.27; Kokott/Sobotta, The distinction between privacy and data protection in the jurisprudence of the CJEU and the ECtHR, International Data Privacy Law 3 (2013), 222; and even AG Villalón, Joined Cases C-293/12 and 594/12 Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger, Opinion of 12 December 2013, paras. 62–67.
- 28.
European Commission, Report from the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament, Evaluation report on the Data Retention Directive (Directive 2006/24/EC) of 18 April 2011, COM(2011) 225 final.
- 29.
Ibid., 28 et seq.
- 30.
Cf. inter alia, Simitis, Der EuGH und die Vorratsdatenspeicherung oder die verfehlte Kehrtwende bei der Kompetenzregelung, Neue Juristische Wochenschrift 2009, 1782; Petri, Rechtsgrundlage der EG-Richtlinie zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 2009, 212, 214 et seq; Braum, „Parallelwertung in der Laiensphäre“: Der EuGH und die Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Zeitschrift für Rechtspolitik 2009, 174; Terhechte (note 3).
- 31.
Case C-301/06 Ireland v Parliament and Council (note 5), para. 24.
- 32.
Case C-367/95 P Commission v Sytraval and Brink’s France [1998] ECR I-1719, para. 67.
- 33.
Case C-301/06 Ireland v Parliament and Council (note 5), para. 34.
- 34.
Cf. Pechstein, EU-Prozessrecht, 4th ed., Tübingen 2011, MN. 212.
- 35.
Case C-155/91 Commission v Council [1993] I-939, paras. 23 et seq.
- 36.
Everting, Überlegungen zum Verfahren vor den Gerichten der Europäischen Gemeinschaft, in: Colneric et. al, Une communauté de droit, Berlin 2003, 537.
- 37.
Giegerich, Spät kommt Ihr, doch Ihr kommt: Warum wird die Grundrechtskonformität der Vorratsdatenspeicherung erst nach acht Jahren geklärt?, Zeitschrift für Europarechtliche Studien 2014, 3, 9 et seq.
- 38.
Terhechte (note 3), 201.
- 39.
Cf. Giegerich (note 37), 14–17.
- 40.
Case C-329/12 Commission v Germany, case closed.
- 41.
Case C-185/09 Commission v Sweden, [2010] ECR-14.
- 42.
Cf. in greater detail Wendel, Wider die Mär von Grundrechtsblinden: Der EuGH und die Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Verfassungsblog, available at: http://www.verfassungsblog.de/wider-maer-vom-grundrechtsblinden-eugh-und-vorratsdatenspeicherung/.
- 43.
Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications), OJ 2002 L 201/37.
- 44.
Joined Cases C-293/12 and 594/12 Digital Rights Ireland and Seitlinger (note 1), para. 32.
- 45.
Joined Cases C-317/04 and 318/04 Parliament v Council and Commission [2006] ECR I-4721, paras. 56-59.
- 46.
Cf. Wagner, Die Vorratsdatenspeicherung in der Grundrechtsunion, Ju-Wiss Blog, available at: https://www.juwiss.de/54-2014/; Lehofer, Nochmals zum VDS-Urteil: auch “autonome” nationale VDS (auf Basis des Art 15 Abs 1 RL 2002/58) muss den Anforderungen des Urteils genügen, available at: http://blog.lehofer.at/2014/04/noch-zwei-kurze-anmerkungen-zum.html; dissenting Wendel (note 42).
- 47.
Case C-301/06 Ireland v Parliament and Council (note 5), para. 67.
- 48.
Cf. Genna, Messy Consequences for National Legislation following Annulment of EU Data Retention Directive, LSE Media Policy Project, available at: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/mediapolicyproject/2014/04/08/messy-consequences-for-national-legislations-following-annulment-of-eu-data-retention-directive/.
- 49.
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Reports of Decisions (BVerfGE) 75, 223.
- 50.
Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014 of 17th July 2014, available at: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2014/27/pdfs/ukpga_20140027_en.pdf, the Act also broadens investigatory powers of UK agencies and contains a clause on extra-territoriality, which are, however, outside the scope of this article.
- 51.
Travis, Drip surveillance law faces legal challenge by MPs, The Guardian of 22 July 2014, available at:http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/drip-surveillance-law-legal-challenge-civil-liberties-campaigners.
- 52.
Basu et al., An open letter from UK internet law academic of 15th July 2014, available at: http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/158070/Open_letter_UK_internet_law_academics.pdf.
- 53.
For reading the requirements as cumulative cf. Kühling, Der Fall der Vorratsdatenspeicherungsrichtlinie und der Aufstieg des EuGH zum Grundrechtsgericht, Neue Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsrecht 2014, 681, 683; Reading the requirements as ‘essential elements’: Priebe, Reform der Vorratsdatenspeicherung – strenge Maßstäbe des EuGH, Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 2014, 456, 458.
- 54.
Roßnagel, Neue Maßstäbe für den Datenschutz in Europa – Folgerungen aus dem EuGH-Urteil zur Vorratsdatenspeicherung, Multimedia und Recht 2014, 372, 375.
- 55.
Cf. The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Peter Schaar: “Quick Freeze” instead of data retention, Press Release of 15 June 2010, available at: http://www.bfdi.bund.de/EN/PublicRelations/PressReleases/2010/22_%22QuickFreeze%22.html?nn=410156.
- 56.
European Commission, Proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (General Data Protection Regulation) of 25 January 2012, COM(2012) 11 final.
- 57.
On the state of the legislative process cf. http://ec.europa.eu/prelex/detail_dossier_real.cfm?CL=en&DosId=201286.
- 58.
European Commission, Proposal for a directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties and free movement of such data of 25 January 2012, COM(2012) 10 final.
- 59.
- 60.
Eder/Schiltz, EU will keine neuen Regeln für Vorratsdaten, Die Welt of 4 June 2014, available at: http://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article128698101/EU-will-keine-neuen-Regeln-fuer-Vorratsdaten.html.
- 61.
European Commission, Speech by Commissioner Avramopoulos on Counter-Terrorism, SPEECH/15/3860 of 28 January 2015, available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-15-3860_en.htm.
- 62.
Statement by Chancellor Merkel of 15 January 2015, available at: http://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Content/DE/Regierungserklaerung/2015/2015-01-15-regierungserklaerung.html.
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Bieker, F. (2015). The Court of Justice of the European Union, Data Retention and the Rights to Data Protection and Privacy – Where Are We Now?. In: Camenisch, J., Fischer-Hübner, S., Hansen, M. (eds) Privacy and Identity Management for the Future Internet in the Age of Globalisation. Privacy and Identity 2014. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 457. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-18621-4_6
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