The key question in oral argument Tuesday in the German appeal of...
The key question in oral argument Tuesday in the German appeal of rules implementing the EU data retention directive was whether the German judges will send the case up to the European Court of Justice to check if the…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
directive complies with EU fundamental rights. Representatives for the German government argued that data retention was necessary to fight severe crimes. Access to the data by law enforcement has been limited by the Constitutional Court in two preliminary injunctions resulting from copyright issues. In the argument, representatives of the music industry urged the court not to put privacy completely above copyright. But the complainants warned that limiting access only to severe cases while retaining the retention obligation would not prevent the violation of fundamental privacy and freedom of expression rights. More than 30,000 Germans, many journalists, physicians, accountants, priests, professional and industry associations and several high level politicians filed complaints against the data retention rules. The most prominent complainant is the new Minister of Justice, Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (Liberal Party), who had joined the opposition against the data retention law when her party still was in the opposition and remains opposed despite being in power. The court decision is expected in the spring.