Formerly known as the Draft Communications Bill and killed by the coalition government of the day, the legislation called by critics a '' was reintroduced last year as the Investigatory Powers Bill , calling for an effective ban on functional encryption and retention of all citizen's browsing histories among other things. Despite considerable objections , the government forged ahead with the IP Bill: In mid-November, the House of Lords passed the Bill with only one minor modification - the specific exemption of Members of Parliament and Peers from monitoring under the Bill. Later that month, the Bill became an Act following the granting of royal assent Now, though, the EU has weighed in on the matter - and it's not best pleased. The Court of Justice of the European Union (CURIA) has issued a judgement in a pair of cases, one brought by a Swedish telecommunications firm and the other by Labour MP Tom Watson and others, against the Secretary of State for the Home Department regarding the IP Act. Its message is clear: 'The ruling, on its face, completely guts the IP Act. '' the ruling reads. 'While the ruling allows for '' it effectively forms a ban on laws like the IP Act as created and enforced by EU member states. That, however, is unlikely to save the UK: Following the referendum on EU membership earlier this year, the UK is hurtling headlong into rescinding its membership, meaning the protections to privacy and related human rights enforced by CURIA, including this latest ruling, will no longer apply and the UK will be free to ignore the ruling and continue to enforce blanket data collection on all non-MP citizens of the UK regardless. With the UK still officially a member of the EU at present, though, it will be hard-pushed to enforce the IP Act as it is written following the ruling.Jim Killock, executive director of privacy advocacy organisation the Open Rights Group (ORG) has welcomed CURIA's ruling. '' he wrote in a statement to press this morning. 'The UK government has not yet responded to the CURIA ruling, which can be read in summary on the official website (PDF warning). The IP Act is scheduled to be enforced from December 30th this year.