European Union: Issued ECJ preliminary ruling in Joined Cases C-793/19 ECJ/SpaceNet and C-794/19/Telekom Deutschland on general and indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data

On 20 September 2022, a preliminary ruling was reached by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) regarding the Joined Cases C-793/19 ECJ/SpaceNet and C-794/19/Telekom Deutschland on the general and indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data. The judgement states that the general and indiscriminate preventative retention by telecommunications providers of traffic and location data on public security grounds introduced by the German Law on Telecommunications is precluded by EU Law. However, EU Law does not preclude general retention of such data when confronted with a serious national security threat. Further, targeted retention of such data and general retention of IP address data for the prevention of serious crime, national security, and public security threats may be permissible.