Davis & Ors v SSHD
Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
APPENDIX
Judgment of the CJEU in Digital Rights Ireland paragraphs 23-71
Consideration of the questions referred
The second question, parts (b) to (d), in Case C 293/12 and the first question in Case C
594/12
23.
By the second question, parts (b) to (d), in Case C 293/12 and the first question in
Case C 594/12, which should be examined together, the referring courts are
essentially asking the Court to examine the validity of Directive 2006/24 in the light
of Articles 7, 8 and 11 of the Charter.
24.
The relevance of Articles 7, 8 and 11 of the Charter with regard to the question of the
validity of Directive 2006/24
25.
It follows from Article 1 and recitals 4, 5, 7 to 11, 21 and 22 of Directive 2006/24 that
the main objective of that directive is to harmonise Member States’ provisions
concerning the retention, by providers of publicly available electronic
communications services or of public communications networks, of certain data
which are generated or processed by them, in order to ensure that the data are
available for the purpose of the prevention, investigation, detection and prosecution of
serious crime, such as organised crime and terrorism, in compliance with the rights
laid down in Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter.
26.
The obligation, under Article 3 of Directive 2006/24, on providers of publicly
available electronic communications services or of public communications networks
to retain the data listed in Article 5 of the directive for the purpose of making them
accessible, if necessary, to the competent national authorities raises questions relating
to respect for private life and communications under Article 7 of the Charter, the
protection of personal data under Article 8 of the Charter and respect for freedom of
expression under Article 11 of the Charter.
27.
In that regard, it should be observed that the data which providers of publicly
available electronic communications services or of public communications networks
must retain, pursuant to Articles 3 and 5 of Directive 2006/24, include data necessary
to trace and identify the source of a communication and its destination, to identify the
date, time, duration and type of a communication, to identify users’ communication
equipment, and to identify the location of mobile communication equipment, data
which consist, inter alia, of the name and address of the subscriber or registered user,
the calling telephone number, the number called and an IP address for Internet
services. Those data make it possible, in particular, to know the identity of the person
with whom a subscriber or registered user has communicated and by what means, and
to identify the time of the communication as well as the place from which that
communication took place. They also make it possible to know the frequency of the
communications of the subscriber or registered user with certain persons during a
given period.