However, the only direct authorisation given by Article 73.1 no. 7 GG is to organise
the technical aspect of the installation of a telecommunications infrastructure and of
the transmission of information with the aid of telecommunications equipment. The
statute does not cover provisions directed to the transmitted content or the manner of
use of telecommunications and, for example, telecommunications surveillance for the
purpose of obtaining information for duties of criminal prosecution or of warding off
dangers. With regard to legislative competence, each such provision is to be seen as
relating to the area of law for whose purposes the surveillance is provided (see BVerfGE 113, 348 <368>; 125, 260 <314>).
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In connection with the provisions of the Telecommunications Act, however, the federal legislature is not prevented, when the factual connection requires it, from legislating on requirements of data protection law at the same time, provided that this avoids
a division between the technical and data protection provisions on data processing
which creates incongruence. These provisions include not only provisions on the protective requirements, but as the obverse of these also provisions on what data may or
must be kept available or supplied for the performance of government duties. In this
connection, admittedly, the legislative competence of the federal legislature extends
only as far as is required under the aspect of data protection law and the associated
constitutional requirements. The Federation may therefore not base the authorisations for the actual data retrieval on Article 73.1 no. 7 of the Basic Law. It needs an independent legal basis for this, or else it must leave the decision on it to the Länder
(see BVerfGE 125, 260 <315>).
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Proceeding on this basis, there are no objections to § 111 TKG. This provision imposes on the telecommunications service providers a duty to collect and store particular telecommunications-related customer data in order to keep these available the
performance of government duties. Understandably, such a provision may only be
made in connection with the telecommunications law requirements for data processing and data protection, and therefore by the federal legislature under Article 73.1 no.
7 of the Basic Law.
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2. Substantively too, § 111 TKG satisfies the constitutional requirements. The scope
of the duty of storage – subject to the requirement of adequate legal bases for the retrieval and the further use of the data – is compatible with the requirements of the
principle of proportionality.
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a) § 111 TKG serves to maintain a reliable data basis for information which permits
particular authorities to attribute telecommunications numbers to individual subscribers. The improvement of government performance of duties intended by this, in
particular in the area of criminal prosecution, the warding off of dangers and intelligence activities, is a legitimate purpose, which may justify an encroachment upon the
right to informational self-determination.
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The fact that the data covered by § 111 TKG are to be kept available by way of precaution without occasion is not an illegitimate objection which cancels the right to in-
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