Czech Court Rules Country's Telecom Metadata Retention Law Is Illegal
A municipal court in Prague ruled that the Czech Republic's blanket collection of its citizens' communications metadata is illegal and contravenes the EU ePrivacy directive.
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European Digital Rights member Iuridicum Remedium (IuRe) reported the development Wednesday. IuRe, a nonprofit human rights group, provided legal representation for journalist Jan Cibulka in a 2024 civil case challenging the Czech state's blanket collection of communications metadata.
The Czech Republic's data retention law requires that telecom operators store metadata on all citizens' mobile communications for six months, IuRe noted. That includes information on phone traffic and locations of internet connections. Cibulka said the government collected information about his whereabouts and the people he contacted under the law.
The country's Constitutional Court ruled in 2019 that storing metadata about individuals' communications was constitutional. However, the Czech Supreme Court held in 2024 that the government was responsible for the incorrect implementation of EU law in the blanket collection of citizens' mobile communications metadata. Last month the municipal court ruled that the "state has failed" to align its practices with the EU directive, IuRe said. The court also ruled that even processing data in the context of data retention amounts to individual harm.
The decision is important not only in the Czech context but also for Europe, IuRe said. The EU Court of Justice has already confirmed several times that blanket collection of communications metadata isn't lawful, and now the Prague court has made clear that the country's law contravenes EU law, it said.
Among other things, IuRe said, the verdict could mean a quick end to widespread government snooping via data retention and could pave the way for lawsuits from other citizens, including demands for financial compensation.