DATA PROTECTION
EU Court of Justice: data protection requirements for allowing access to telephone records.
Judgment of the EU Court of Justice in Case C-178/22: Privacy and prosecution of serious offences: the court responsible for authorising access to telephone records in order to identify the perpetrators of an offence, and for the prosecution of which offence national law envisages such access, must be entitled to refuse or restrict that access.
Under Italian law, the offence of aggravated theft is one of the offences that may justify obtaining telephone records from a provider of electronic communications services on the basis of prior authorisation from a court. The Court of Justice considers that access to such records can be granted only to the data of individuals suspected of being implicated in a serious offence, and it specifies that it is for the Member States to define ‘serious offences’. However, the court responsible for authorising that access must be entitled to refuse or restrict that access where it finds that the interference with the fundamental rights to private life and to the protection of personal data which such access would constitute is serious, while it is clear that the offence at issue is not a serious offence in the light of the societal conditions prevailing in the Member State concerned.
Under Italian law, the offence of aggravated theft is one of the offences that may justify obtaining telephone records from a provider of electronic communications services on the basis of prior authorisation from a court. The Court of Justice considers that access to such records can be granted only to the data of individuals suspected of being implicated in a serious offence, and it specifies that it is for the Member States to define ‘serious offences’. However, the court responsible for authorising that access must be entitled to refuse or restrict that access where it finds that the interference with the fundamental rights to private life and to the protection of personal data which such access would constitute is serious, while it is clear that the offence at issue is not a serious offence in the light of the societal conditions prevailing in the Member State concerned.
