France is resorting to drastic measures to defend its approach to data retention. After making it a negotiating tool in February on the e-Privacy Regulation, the country is now challenging the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, several newspapers revealed on Wednesday 3 March.
To sum up, France has asked the State Council not to follow the October rulings of the Court of Justice, which prohibit the generalised and indiscriminate retention of connection data, in the name of constitutional identity (see EUROPE 12670/17).
In February, the country made its support for the EU Council’s general approach on the draft e-Privacy Regulation conditional on specific derogations for data retention (including metadata for the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties and the protection from and prevention of threats to public security) (see EUROPE 12655/13). In the minutes of the meeting, however, France stated that it reserved the right to issue an interpretative declaration in the future.
The subject of data retention will be discussed at the Council of Justice Ministers on 11 March. In December 2020, the Commission published a study by an external consultant which concluded that there was a significant fragmentation of the regulatory and institutional frameworks for data retention in the 10 Member States studied (including France).
Link to the study: http://bit.ly/2NZ4rOw (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)