Tele2 Sverige AB v Post- och telestyrelsen
EU law precludes national legislation requiring the general and indiscriminate retention of communications data, and access to retained data must be limited to fighting serious crime and subject to prior independent review.
Facts
After the Court of Justice declared the Data Retention Directive invalid in Digital Rights Ireland, Tele2, a Swedish telecoms provider, stopped retaining its customers' communications data, and challenged an order of the Swedish regulator requiring it to do so under national law. In the United Kingdom, Tom Watson MP and others challenged section 1 of the Data Retention and Investigatory Powers Act 2014, which allowed the Secretary of State to require providers to retain communications data. The Swedish court and the English Court of Appeal referred questions to the Court of Justice, which heard the cases together.
Legal principle
The Court of Justice held that article 15(1) of the e-Privacy Directive, read in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights, precludes national legislation which, for the purpose of fighting crime, provides for the general and indiscriminate retention of all traffic and location data of all subscribers and users relating to all means of electronic communication. Member states may provide for the targeted retention of such data for the purpose of fighting serious crime, limited to what is strictly necessary. National legislation governing access to retained data must restrict access to the purpose of fighting serious crime, must make access subject to prior review by a court or an independent administrative body, and must require the data to be retained within the European Union.
Related cases on international transfers, surveillance and data retention
- Big Brother Watch v United Kingdom (2021) Application no 58170/13
- Centrum för rättvisa v Sweden (2021) Application no 35252/08
- Data Protection Commissioner v Facebook Ireland Ltd and Maximillian Schrems (2020) Case C-311/18
- Digital Rights Ireland Ltd v Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources Joined Cases C-293/12 and C-594/12, EU:C:2014:238
- La Quadrature du Net v Premier ministre (2020) Joined Cases C-511/18, C-512/18 and C-520/18
- Privacy International v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (2020) Case C-623/17
- R (Bridges) v Chief Constable of South Wales Police [2020] EWCA Civ 1058, [2020] 1 WLR 5037
- R (Catt) v Association of Chief Police Officers [2015] UKSC 9, [2015] AC 1065
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