Telecommunications data as personal data - retention and re-use in the light of European Union law and the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU (Part I)

The subject of this publication is to present the issue of retention of telecommunications data as personal data in the light of European Union law, as well as to discuss the evolution of this law, its implementation into national law and to present and discuss the case law of the CJEU on this subject. The article also addresses the use of retained data by authorised authorities in light of the applicable law, as well as the CJEU jurisprudence in this aspect. The first part of the publication presents and discusses the key EU legal acts concerning the aspect of protection of telecommunication data as personal data, the retention of such data and the possibility of its re-use, as well as the implementation of these regulations into national law. This study deliberately omits the Regulation on the Protection of Personal Data (RODO). Instead, the second part of the publication will present and discuss the key rulings of the CJEU on the subject, as well as assess their law-making character.