The Court of Justice of the European Union ruled on Thursday 16 March (Case C-339/21) that the partial reimbursement of interception communications (voice, IT, data, etc.) required by the judicial authorities of a Member State complies with the European Electronic Communications Code.
In Italy, telecoms operators are seeking the annulment of an administrative decree which reduced by at least 50% the amounts of reimbursements for costs incurred in the event of a request for interception of communications from judicial authorities.
The Court notes that, according to the European Electronic Communications Code (see EUROPE 12137/9), authorisation for the provision of electronic communications networks or services may be subject to certain conditions, including the facilitation of legal interception by the competent national authorities.
As a result, the EU legislator has neither imposed nor excluded the reimbursement by Member States of the costs that would be incurred by companies facilitating legal interception. Therefore, Member States have a margin of discretion, which Italy has exercised in this case, the Court said.
According to the European Court, the contested decree establishes non-discriminatory, proportionate and transparent rules. Indeed, only telecommunication operators are able to intercept communications with the purpose of overriding public interest objectives. Reimbursements for the costs of these interceptions are also comparable for all operators. Fixed by means of a formal administrative act that can be freely consulted, they are based on unitary flat rates which are calculated taking into account technological progress.
See the Court's judgment: https://aeur.eu/f/5v2 (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)