Archive notice: This article was originally published on March 19, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
The German Internet Industry Association (eco) e.V. welcomes the Federal Constitutional Court’s urgent decision, which points in the right direction. In particular, the association welcomes the clear signal to the music industry that the stored data may be used only to prosecute serious criminal offences, and not, for example, to investigate copyright infringements.
In view of the provisional prohibitions issued today on the use of the data to be retained, eco believes a pragmatic approach to the statutory retention obligation is called for.
Oliver Süme, eco board member for law and regulation, comments: “Providers must tackle the complex project of implementing data retention, which is likely to take months, if not years, given the large amount of new data to be stored, amid considerable uncertainties. We do not expect the technical standards from the European telecommunications authority ETSI to be available until the end of the year. This could overturn even well-advanced projects. Moreover, companies’ efforts and the associated costs running into millions are fully exposed to the risk of being turned into a gigantic wasted investment by rulings of the European Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional Court. The order of the day is therefore: refrain from the the imposition of penalties for failure to implement the retention obligation until a decision in the main proceedings, and reimburse all investment costs.”
In eco’s view, companies that provisionally stop their data-retention projects in light of the legal and technical uncertainties should not be held liable for doing so. The statutory administrative penalties and fines for companies that fail to comply should not be imposed at least until there is clarity about the retention obligation.
Oliver Süme adds: “The Internet industry alone has to spend 332 million euros on hardware and software for data retention. It is unacceptable for companies, and indirectly consumers, to be forced to throw this money out of the window.”
