European Commission is suing Germany over data retention obligation

The European Commission has sued Germany for failing to implement the 2006 data retention directive. At the same time, the Supreme Court of Ireland is asking the European Court of Justice to review the directive.

The Court of Justice of the European Union will consider the fact that Germany has not yet transposed the European data retention directive of 2006 into law. The case is according to Der Spiegel applied by the European Commission, which already announced in May that it would take legal action against the country. The Commission is demanding a fine.

The European data retention directive, which was adopted in 2005, prescribes that all member states must store telephone, e-mail and internet traffic data for a minimum of 6 and a maximum of 24 months, so that investigative authorities can use it in investigations into terrorism and serious crime. In Germany, however, the court ruled in 2010 that the German implementation of the data retention obligation was unconstitutional. In the years that followed, no new law was passed due to political disagreements.

The data retention directive has been under fire for some time. For example, the European Court of Justice must also decide whether the retention obligation can be reconciled with civil rights, such as the right to privacy, and whether Member States can be forced to transpose it into law. The Irish Supreme Court asked the Court to rule on this after the Irish digital civil rights movement Digital Rights Ireland contested the legality of the directive.