German data retention is not compatible with EU law. The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday in Luxembourg that the communication data of all citizens should not be stored without cause. Limited data storage is only permitted under certain strict conditions. (Ref. C-793/19 and C-794/19)
In the event of a serious current or foreseeable threat to national security, traffic and location data should generally be stored temporarily, the ECJ said. In order to protect national security, fight serious crime and prevent serious threats to public security, telecommunications providers may be required to store certain data for a limited period of time.
Data retention is currently suspended in Germany. The Federal Administrative Court submitted the question of legality to the ECJ. It has to decide on lawsuits from Telekom and Spacenet. The federal government has already announced that it intends to reform the regulation. On Tuesday, the ECJ also declared the French regulation on data retention against market abuse to be illegal.
More to come