EDRi member Open Rights Group (ORG), Privacy International and a group of internationally acknowledged experts filed amicus curiae briefs with the Hungarian Constitutional Court. The case has been brought by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) against two major service providers, in an attempt to force the Hungarian Constitutional Court to repeal the Hungarian Electronic Communications Act.

“A year ago, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled that blanket data retention interferes with our fundamental rights to privacy and the protection of our personal data. ORG has already intervened in a case challenging data retention in the UK and hope to see other European countries repeal national legislation that forces companies to keep everyone’s personal communications data,”

said Elizabeth Knight, Legal Director of Open Rights Group.

The submissions focus on the importance of EU law and why the Hungarian law does not comply with it. Open Rights Group and Privacy International emphasise in particular in their submission the need for carefully calibrated EU rules in the field of surveillance and data protection, the significance of the retention of ”communications data” or “metadata”, the seriousness of data retention as an interference with human rights, and the need for effective remedies in national legal systems to address breaches of EU law.

The final ruling of the Hungarian Constitutional Court is expected in one month.

The amicus curiae submissions of Open Rights Group and Privacy International (08.04.2015)

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/assets/files/legal/ORG_PI_Hungarian%20Constitutional%20Court%20submissions_final.pdf

The amicus curiae submissions of the group of international scholars (15.03.2015)

http://tasz.hu/files/tasz/imce/2015/amicus_brief_hungary_data_retention_law_ac_final.pdf

HCLU litigates Hungarian service providers to terminate data retention (13.10.2014)

http://tasz.hu/en/data-protection/hclu-litigates-hungarian-service-providers-terminate-data-retention

Press Release: Open Rights Group files amicus brief in Hungarian data retention case

https://www.openrightsgroup.org/press/releases/open-rights-group-file-amicus-brief-in-hungarian-data-retention-case

EDRi-gram: Hungarian Data Retention Law – challenged at the Constitutional Court (04.06.2008)

https://edri.org/edrigramnumber6-11hungary-data-retention-constitutional/

(Contribution by EDRi member Open Rights Group, United Kingdom)