Case C-698/15, Davis – did the CJEU in Digital Rights Ireland intend to lay down mandatory requirements of EU law?

In 2006, the EU’s ‘data retention’ Directive 2006/24/EC required telecoms companies to store data traffic. In its Digital Rights Ireland judgment of 2014, the CJEU annulled the Directive because the Directive was incompatible with the EU Charter. Six national courts have subsequently declared their national data retention laws to be invalid. However, in other Member States legal uncertainty surrounds what the CJEU actually decided and the legal effects that flow from it. In that context, a Swedish court has already made a preliminary reference to the CJEU. Now, the Court of Appeal of England and Wales has decided to make its own preliminary reference.

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Case C-610/15, Stichting Brein – seeking website blocks to stop peer to peer technology

People may use telecoms networks to pass information to each other. Some websites such as that run by The Pirate Bay allow people to download software that enables them to pass small pieces of information around a telecoms network. The question in this case is whether a Dutch court can order telecoms companies to block their customers’ access to websites like The Pirate Bay in order to stop presumed copyright infringement from taking place.

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Case C-526/15, Uber Belgium – facilitating a mobility service not a taxi service

Do occasional private car drivers who use Uber’s software and get paid to take people on journeys but who do not receive remuneration or a wage, provide a taxi service requiring a license?

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Case C-398/15, Manni – data in public registers should be subject to the Google right to be forgotten

Details about Mr Manni were incorporated in a public register. Data in the register was subsequently processed and used for other purposes by a commercial company. The question in this case is whether Mr Manni can require the administrators of the register to respect his right to privacy in accordance with the CJEU’s ‘right to be forgotten’ Google judgment.

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Case C-203/15, Tele2 Sverige – Swedish data retention despite Digital Rights Ireland

Telecoms companies were legally required to store data traffic until the CJEU’s judgment in Digital Rights Ireland. The CJEU annulled the EU’s Data Retention Directive for being incompatible with the EU Charter. Nevertheless, Swedish telecoms companies are still being required to store data. The legal basis for this is an earlier EU Directive, which had been amended by the Data Retention Directive. Is this regulatory approach compatible with the EU Charter?

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Case C-192/15, Rease – secretly spied on, medical data leaked, and left unprotected by the Dutch regulator

Can the Dutch Data Protection Agency exert any control over companies based in the UK and the USA which conduct covert surveillance on Dutch territory? And in the event of an individual’s data processing law rights under Dutch law being breached, what is to be done where the internal rules of the Dutch Data Protection Agency mean that the Agency will never ever act on a complaint coming from an individual?

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Case A-1/15, The Canada-EU ‘PNR’ Agreement – contrary to the EU Charter?

Canada and the EU have negotiated a new Passenger Name Record Agreement. A plank of the Agreement involves the transfer and processing of data. The European Parliament is asking the CJEU for a legal opinion on the compatibility of that Agreement with the EU Charter.

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