European Union: Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime adopted by CoE's Committee of Ministers

On 17 November 2021, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted the Second Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime (Budapest Convention). The Protocol foresees enhanced cooperation between parties on cybercrime and electronic evidence. Following implementation of the Treaty, competent authorities in a ratifying state will be able to request the information needed to identify the owner of domain names registered in the territory of another party state for the purposes of criminal investigation. Further, the competent authorities of a ratifying state will be able to directly request subscriber information from service providers in another party state through the legal basis of the requesting state. Alternatively, the Protocol foresees a more streamlined mutual assistance procedure for the disclosure of subscriber information. The Protocol will be open for signature in May 2022.