On Tuesday the German Working Group on Data Retention endorsed the Czech Constitutional Court’s decision to annul a Czech data retention law.  The Czech court held that the law, which included a blanket obligation on telecommunication companies to retain Czech citizens’ telephone, mobile phone, e-mail and Internet access records, was incompatible with Czech citizens’ fundamental right to privacy.  The Court also cast a skeptical eye over the claimed benefits of blanket data retention policies, saying that it was not convinced the policy would be an “effective tool” and that the retention had “little effect on reducing the number of committed serious crimes”.

The German Working Group says the decision is further evidence that the data retention directive could be “annulled” by the ECJ.  National laws have already faced challenges in Romania, Germany and the Czech Republic to date. 

In May last year an Irish court allowed the EU directive to be referred to the ECJ – that case is still ongoing and, as the German Working Group suggests, the outcome of that case could potentially threaten the directive.

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Photo of Dan Cooper Dan Cooper

Daniel Cooper is co-chair of Covington’s Data Privacy and Cyber Security Practice, and advises clients on information technology regulatory and policy issues, particularly data protection, consumer protection, AI, and data security matters. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, representing…

Daniel Cooper is co-chair of Covington’s Data Privacy and Cyber Security Practice, and advises clients on information technology regulatory and policy issues, particularly data protection, consumer protection, AI, and data security matters. He has over 20 years of experience in the field, representing clients in regulatory proceedings before privacy authorities in Europe and counseling them on their global compliance and government affairs strategies. Dan regularly lectures on the topic, and was instrumental in drafting the privacy standards applied in professional sport.

According to Chambers UK, his “level of expertise is second to none, but it’s also equally paired with a keen understanding of our business and direction.” It was noted that “he is very good at calibrating and helping to gauge risk.”

Dan is qualified to practice law in the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium. He has also been appointed to the advisory and expert boards of privacy NGOs and agencies, such as Privacy International and the European security agency, ENISA.