Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
Davis & Ors v SSHD
location data to be retained and the conditions and periods of
retention.
(7) The Conclusions of the Justice and Home Affairs Council
of 19 December 2002 underline that, because of the significant
growth in the possibilities afforded by electronic
communications, data relating to the use of electronic
communications are particularly important and therefore a
valuable tool in the prevention, investigation, detection and
prosecution of criminal offences, in particular organised
crime…
(9)…Because retention of data has proved to be such a
necessary and effective investigative tool for law enforcement
in several Member States, and in particular concerning serious
matters such as organised crime and terrorism, it is necessary to
ensure that retained data are made available to law enforcement
authorities for a certain period, subject to the conditions
provided for in this Directive. The adoption of an instrument on
data retention that complies with the requirements of Article 8
of the ECHR is therefore a necessary measure…
(11) Given the importance of traffic and location data for the
investigation, detection, and prosecution of criminal offences,
as demonstrated by research and the practical experience of
several Member States, there is a need to ensure at European
level that data that are generated or processed, in the course of
the supply of communications services, by providers of
publicly available electronic communications services or of a
public communications network are retained for a certain
period, subject to the conditions provided for in this
Directive…
(21) Since the objectives of this Directive, namely to harmonise
the obligations on providers to retain certain data and to ensure
that those data are available for the purpose of the
investigation, detection and prosecution of serious crime, as
defined by each Member State in its national law, cannot be
sufficiently achieved by the Member States and can therefore,
by reason of the scale and effects of this Directive, be better
achieved at Community level, the Community may adopt
measures, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity as set
out in Article 5 of the Treaty…”
30.
The Data Retention Directive was adopted on the basis of Article 95 EC (now Article
114 TFEU), which gives the EU legislative competence to adopt harmonisation
measures that have as their object the establishment and functioning of the internal
market.
31.
Article 1 of the Data Retention Directive emphasised this harmonising objective: