The Dutch data retention law requiring telecommunications operators and ISPs to store customer metadata for police investigations was scrapped by the District Court of the Hague on Wednesday.
The court found that the law violates fundamental European Union privacy rights. The question remains though whether the law should be inactivated indefinitely, as the case can be appealed by the Dutch state, a court spokesman said. However, pending the outcome of any possible legal procedures the law will remain inactive, he said.
The Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice declined to comment as it was still studying the verdict.
The law suspended by the court was based on the EU's Data Retention Directive, which was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) last year, also because it violated fundamental privacy rights.
Despite that ruling though, the Dutch government decided in November last year to largely maintain its national data retention law on the grounds that it "is indispensable for the investigation and prosecution of serious criminal offenses." Only a few adjustments were proposed, which would tighten who had access to what data and under what circumstances.
Not satisfied with that approach, a broad coalition of organizations, including Privacy First, the Dutch Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Dutch Association of Journalists, the Dutch Section of the International Commission of Jurists, ISP BIT and telecom companies VOYS and SpeakUp, sued the government in January to get the law invalidated.
The court, ruling in their favor, criticized the overly broad scope of the law in its verdict.
Data retention rules were introduced after terror attacks in London and Madrid in 2004 and 2005 with the aim of fighting serious crime. However, the Dutch law also allowed law enforcement to retrieve data in the case of a bicycle theft, the court noted. And while the government promised not to use the law lightly, the fact remains that the opportunity to do so exists and there are no safeguards to effectively restrict access to information to what is strictly necessary for the fight against only serious crime, the court found.
What's more, under the scrapped law, access to data is not subject to a prior review by a court or independent administrative authority, the court said. Thus, the law violates articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, which cover the right to a private life and the protection of personal data.
While the inactivation of the law may have profound implications for the investigation and prosecution of criminal offenses, that does not justify the persistence of the infringement, the court said.
The verdict probably means that ISPs and telecom companies can now stop retaining data, but when or whether they will do so is unclear. BIT did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Dutch ISP XS4ALL said the company can probably stop retaining data and delete existing records but wants the legal department to make absolutely sure it can before it will do so.
The Netherlands is not the only country where a law based on the EU Data Retention Directive was invalidated. A similar law was axed by the Constitutional Court of Austria in the wake of the CJEU ruling, for example, while Germany's data retention law was ruled unconstitutional long before the CJEU ruling.
In Sweden, meanwhile, the government maintains that the national data retention law can still be applied. And in the U.K., a new data retention law was rushed through by the U.K. government in July, replacing the one that was based on the EU directive. That new law will be reviewed by the country's High Court though to determine if it violates human rights.
In Australia, the federal government has shown no signs of backing off from its proposed data retention regime.
Loek is Amsterdam Correspondent and covers online privacy, intellectual property, online payment issues as well as EU technology policy and regulation for the IDG News Service. Follow him on Twitter at @loekessers or email tips and comments to loek_essers@idg.com