The Advocate General recommends that the Court of Justice of the EU should conclude that the practices of the telephone company Orange România SA, which require its customers to consent to the collection and retention of copies of their identity documents, are contrary to EU law. According to Advocate General Maciej Szpunar, delivering his Opinion on Wednesday 4 March (Case C-61/19), this measure goes beyond what is necessary for the performance of the contract.
The company Orange România SA has concluded contracts in which its customers, by ticking a box in the contractual documentation, have given their consent to the processing of personal data, consisting of the collection and storage of copies of their identity documents. In early 2018, however, the national authority fined Orange România and required the company to destroy copies of the identity documents concerned on the grounds that customers had not given “informed” consent. Directive 95/46/EC and the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679) provide that consent must be “freely given, specific and informed”.
In reply to the question referred for a preliminary ruling by the Bucharest District Court, Mr Szpunar suggests that those conditions should be considered as not being satisfied. According to him, Orange customers are not in a position to give informed consent since they are not aware of the consequences of their refusal, since Orange does not state that refusal to collect and retain a copy of the identity card does not make it impossible to conclude the contract. (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)