Fergie's Tech Blog

EU: Air Data Ruling Could Affect Data Retention Law Dispute

Teresa Küchler writes on EUobserver.com:

The legal verdict against Brussels' competencies on the transfer of passenger data to the US is likely to boost opponents of another contentious issue – the bloc's disputed data retention issue.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Tuesday (30 May) announced that an EU-US agreement from 2004 regulating the handover of air passenger data to US security authorities lacked an "appropriate legal basis."

The top court ruled that the handing over such information falls under member states' criminal law legislation, and not under EU scope.

The verdict comes only a week after Dublin announced that Ireland had started a legal challenge to test the judicial bearing of the recent EU data retention directive, which also concerns the processing of possibly sensitive personal data.

posted by Fergie @ 5/31/2006 08:37:00 AM