Judgment — ECLI:EU:C:2012:748
Date: 2012-11-22
Language of the case: German
Court formation: Third Chamber
Subject matter: Telecommunications;Data protection
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Germany

Summary — Judgment of the Court (Third Chamber), 22 November 2012 1. Approximation of laws — Telecommunications sector — Processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector — Directive 2002/58 — Passing traffic data to the assignee of the claims for payment of the service provider — Lawfulness — Conditions — Processing of data under the authority of the service provider and for the purpose of recovering the claims for payment assigned (European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/58, Art. 6(2) and (5)) 2. Approximation of laws — Telecommunications sector — Processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector — Directive 2002/58 — Passing traffic data to the assignee of the claims for payment of the service provider — Person acting under the authority of the service provider — Concept — Restrictive interpretation (European Parliament and Council Directive 2002/58, Arts 5(1) and 6(2) and (5)) 1. Article 6(2) and (5) of Directive 2002/58 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications) must be interpreted as authorising a provider of public communications networks and of publicly-accessible electronic communications services to pass traffic data to the assignee of its claims for payment in respect of the supply of telecommunications services for the purpose of recovery of those claims, and as authorising that assignee to process those data on condition, first, that it acts under the authority of the service provider as regards the processing of those data and, second, that that assignee confines itself to processing the traffic data necessary for the purposes of recovering the claims assigned. (see paras 19, 29, operative part) 2. An assignee of the claims for payments of a service provider of public electronic communications networks is deemed to act under the authority of the service provider, within the meaning of Article 6(5) of Directive 2002/58, concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on Privacy and Electronic Communications), where, for the processing of traffic data, it acts exclusively on the instructions and under the control of the service provider. In particular, the contract concluded between them must contain provisions capable of guaranteeing the lawful processing, by the assignee, of the traffic data and enabling the service provider to ensure, at all times, that the assignee is complying with those provisions. In so far as Article 6(2) and (5) of Directive 2002/58 contains an exception to the confidentiality of communications, laid down in Article 5(1) of that directive, it must be interpreted strictly. Moreover the aim of Article 6(5) is to ensure that the externalisation of the recovery of claims for payment, by restricting it to persons acting under the control of the service supplier, does not affect the level of protection of personal data enjoyed by the user. (see paras 23, 26, 30, operative part)