The Court of Justice confirms that EU law precludes national legislation requiring a provider of electronic communications services to carry out the general and indiscriminate transmission or retention of traffic data and location data for the purpose of combating crime in general or of safeguarding national security
Judgments in Case C 623/17, Privacy International, and in Joined Cases C 511/18, La Quadrature du Net and Others, C 512/18, French Data Network and Others, and C 520/18, Ordre des barreaux francophones et germanophone and Others
EU law precludes national legislation requiring a provider of electronic communications services to carry out the general and indiscriminate transmission or retention of traffic data and location data for the purpose of combating crime in general or of safeguarding national security.
The Court considers, however, that national legislation requiring providers of electronic communications services to retain traffic data and location data or to forward that data to the national security and intelligence authorities for that purpose falls within the scope of that directive.
Next, the Court recalls that the directive on privacy and electronic communications does not permit the exception to the obligation of principle to ensure the confidentiality of electronic communications and the related data and to the prohibition on storage of such data to become the rule. This means that the directive does not authorise the Member States to adopt, inter alia for the purposes of national security, legislative measures intended to restrict the scope of rights and obligations provided for in that directive, in particular the obligation to ensure the confidentiality of communications and traffic data, unless such measures comply with the general principles of EU law, including the principle of proportionality, and the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Charter.
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