years of debate
Federal Administrative Court rules: Data retention is illegal
The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig
© Jan Woitas / DPA
The federal judges have drawn a line under years of debate and uncertainty: data retention without cause violates European law. Minister of Justice Buschmann now wants to remove the storage from the law.
The Federal Administrative Court has the causeless Data retention classified as completely contrary to European law. The court in Leipzig announced on Thursday that the regulation should no longer be applied (file no.: BVerwG 6 C 6.22 and BVerwG 6 C 7.22). The federal judges thus drew a line under years of discussions and uncertainties. The decision was based on complaints by two telecommunications companies against data retention.
The regulation in the Telecommunications Act on the storage of phone numbers, IP addresses or the duration of connections “does not meet the requirements of Union law because no objective criteria are determined that establish a connection between the data to be stored and the goal pursued,” said the Federal Administrative Court.
Data retention: Regulation no longer applied since 2017
The storage of traffic and location data is not strictly limited to the purpose of protecting national security. Although IP addresses may be stored to combat serious crime and prevent serious threats to public security, this is not so clearly defined in the Telecommunications Act.
With its judgments, the Federal Administrative Court followed the guidelines of the ECJ. The European Court of Justice had dealt with the retention of data after a submission by the highest German administrative court. The regulation had not been applied since 2017 due to legal uncertainties.
According to the Luxembourg judgment, the communication data of all citizens may not be stored without reason; targeted and temporary storage of the data is only possible in the event of a serious threat to national security. According to the ECJ, it may also be possible to retain IP addresses to combat serious crime.
Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann explained that the decision of the Federal Administrative Court made it finally clear that data retention in Germany is “completely illegal and therefore inapplicable”. “The current decisions are a clear order for us to quickly remove data retention from the law – and to further strengthen digital civil rights in our country,” said the FDP politician. He referred to the coalition agreement of the traffic light government, according to which relevant data should only be stored “legally certain and by judicial decision”.