Dear Jean-Jacques and all, (let me Cc the EURALO list to this) thanks a lot for pointing to this yesterday’s European Court decision with various and important foreseeable impacts – “regarding the protection of Internet user rights and privacy”, as you mentioned. As EDRI affirmed yesterday: “After eight years, this affront (data retention) to the fundamental rights of European citizens has finally been declared illegal. Eight years of abuses of personal data and eight years of reassurances from EU Member States and the Commission that the measure was legal …” Various among our German ALSes (DigitalCourage, Network New Media, Vereinigung Datenschutz etc.) pointed to this abuse and violation of privacy rights since years while the public was mislead until this superior court ruling. As an example, Germany didn’t transpose this EU Directive 2002/58/EC into its national legislation so far and was sued by the European Commission for “non-compliance with EU rules”. Now the EU Commission and most member states have to do their home work for respecting this European Court decision (life can be cruel ;-) Besides Europe, this court decision impacts IMO also ICANN incl. recent discussions in Singapore (and before) whether or to what an extent European registrars have to comply with and exert ICANN rules clearly violating European privacy standards – particularly after yesterday’s court decision? To me, yesterday was a great day for reaffirming *privacy as a fundamental right* in the EU! Any further comments on this are welcome! Kind regards, Wolf Subrenat, Jean-Jacques wrote Wed, 9 Apr 2014 10:32:4

On 9 april, the European Union Court of Justice (EUCJ) ruled that

"Directive 2006/24/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC is invalid".

This ruling follows requests by associations representing civil society in Ireland (Digital Rights Ireland, Ltd.) and Austria (Verfassungsgerichtshof). It - requires the European Union to provide enhanced protection for Internet and telecommunications users; - while recognizing the legitimate concerns posed by criminal and terrorist activities, imposes improved protection of personal data and privacy.

For those not familiar with the legal system of the European Union, when the new Directive will have been adopted as a result of this ruling, it will be transposed into the national legislation of each Member State.

To my knowledge, this ruling represents one of the most (if not the most) advanced legislation in the world regarding the protection of Internet user rights and privacy.

The full ruling can be read - in English, http://curia.europa.eu/juris/celex.jsf?celex=62012CJ0293&lang1=fr&type=TXT&a... - in French, http://curia.europa.eu/juris/celex.jsf?celex=62012CJ0293&lang1=fr&type=TXT&a... - in German, http://curia.europa.eu/juris/celex.jsf?celex=62012CJ0293&lang1=fr&type=TXT&a...

Jean-Jacques.

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