Publication

On 15 March 2006, the Data Retention Directive was adopted. Since then, this seemingly straightforward directive has ‘generated’ quite an impressive number of court judgments. In particular, the judgment of the German Constitutional Court, delivered on 2 March 2010, has already caught the attention of several commentators. In the judgment, the court says ‘no’ to the German implementation laws of the Data Retention Directive. In this paper we wish to highlight some of the key features of the ruling and its main similarities and divergences with similar judgments. We contextualize the judgment in the wider framework of EU data processing and protection debates, outlining some elements of reflection for further discussion.