Tag Archives: Kafka

Here is a new case at the Court of Justice of the EU that the data protection world will be looking forward to, as it addresses questions about the practical effects of the invalidation of the Data Retention Directive.

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Case C-475/16 K. (yes, like those Kafka characters) concerns criminal proceedings against K. before Greek courts, which apparently involve evidence gathered under the Greek national law that transposed the now-invalidated Data Retention Directive. The Directive was invalidated in its entirety by the CJEU in 2014, after the Court found in its Digital Rights Ireland judgment that the provisions of the Directive breached Articles 7 (right to respect for private life) and 8 (right to the protection of personal data) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The Greek judges sent in August a big set out questions for a preliminary ruling to the CJEU (17 questions). Among those, there are a couple of very interesting ones, because they deal with the effects in practice of the invalidation of an EU Directive and what happens with national laws of the Member States that transposed the Directive.

For instance, the national judge asks whether national courts are obliged not to apply legislative measures transposing the annulled Directive and whether this obligation also means that they must dismiss evidence obtained as a consequence of those legislative measures (Question 3). The national judge also wants to know if maintaining the national law that transposes an invalidated Directive constitutes an obstacle to the establishment and functioning of the internal market (Question 16).

Another question raised by the national judge is whether the national legislation that transposed the annulled Data Retention Directive and that remained in force at national level after the annulment is still considered as falling under the scope of EU law (Question 4). The answer to this question is important because the EU Charter and the supremacy of EU law do not apply to situations that fall outside the scope of EU law.

The Greek judge didn’t miss the opportunity to also ask about the effect on the national law transposing the Data Retention Directive of the fact that this Directive was also enacted to implement a harmonised framework at the European level under Article 15(1) of the ePrivacy Directive (Question 5). The question is whether this fact is enough to bring the surviving national data retention laws under the scope of EU law.

As long as the Charter will be considered applicable to the facts of the case, the national judge further wants to know whether national law that complies partly with the criteria set out in the Digital Rights Ireland decision still breaches Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter because it doesn’t comply with all of it (Question 13). For instance, the national judge estimates that the national law doesn’t comply with the request that the persons whose data are retained must be at least indirectly in a situation which is liable to give rise to criminal prosecutions (para 58 DRI), but it complies with the request that the national law must contain substantive and procedural conditions for the access of competent authorities to the retained data and objective criteria by which the number of persons authorised to access these data is limited to what is strictly necessary (paras 61, 62 DRI).

Lastly, it will be also interesting to see whether the Court decides to address the issue of what “serious crime” means in the context of limiting the exercise of fundamental rights (Questions 10 and 11).

If you would like to dwell into some of these topics, have a look at the AG Opinion in the Tele2Sverige case, published on 19 July 2016. The judgment in that case is due on 21 December 2016. Also, have a look at this analysis of the Opinion.

As for a quick “what to expect” in the K. case from my side, here it is:

• the CJEU will seriously re-organise the 17 questions and regroup them in 4 to 5 topics, also clarifying that it only deals with the interpretation of EU law, not national law or facts in national proceedings;
• the national laws transposing the Data Retention Directive will probably be considered as being in the field of EU law – as they also regulate within the ambit of the ePrivacy Directive;
• the Court will restate the criteria in DRI and probably clarify that all criteria must be complied with, no exceptions, in order for national measures to comply with the Charter;
• the CJEU will probably not give indications to the national courts on whether they should admit or dismiss evidence collected on the bases of national law that does not comply with EU law – it’s too specific and the Court is ‘in the business’ of interpreting EU law; the best case scenario, which is possible, is that the Court will give some guidance on the obligations of Member States (and hopefully their authorities) regarding the effects of their transposing national laws when relevant EU secondary law is annulled;
• as for what “serious crime” means in the context of limiting fundamental rights, let’s see about that. Probably the Court will give useful guidance.