Language of document :

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Conseil d’État (France) lodged on 3 August 2018 — French Data Network, La Quadrature du Net, Fédération des fournisseurs d’accès à Internet associatifs v Premier ministre, Garde des Sceaux, Ministre de la Justice

(Case C-512/18)

Language of the case: French

Referring court

Conseil d’État

Parties to the main proceedings

Applicants: French Data Network, La Quadrature du Net, Fédération des fournisseurs d’accès à Internet associatifs

Defendants: Premier ministre, Garde des Sceaux, Ministre de la Justice

Questions referred

Is the general and indiscriminate retention obligation imposed on providers on the basis of the permissive provisions of Article 15(1) of Directive [2002/58/EC] of 12 July 2002 1 to be regarded, inter alia in the light of the guarantees and checks to which the collection and use of such connection data are then subject, as interference justified by the right to security guaranteed in Article 6 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the requirements of national security, responsibility for which falls to the Member States alone pursuant to Article 4 of the Treaty on European Union?

Are the provisions of Directive [2000/31/EC] of 8 June 2000 2 , read in the light of Articles 6, 7, 8 and 11 and Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, to be interpreted as allowing a State to introduce national legislation requiring the persons whose activity consists in offering access to online public communications services and the natural or legal persons who, even free of charge, and for provision to the public via online public communications services, store signals, writing, images, sounds or messages of any kind provided by recipients of those services to retain the data capable of enabling the identification of anyone who has contributed to the creation of the content or some of the content of the services which they provide, so that the judicial authority may, where appropriate, require the communication of those data with a view to ensuring compliance with the rules on civil and criminal liability?

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1     Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) (OJ 2002 L 201, p. 37).

2     Directive 2000/31/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2000 on certain legal aspects of information society services, in particular electronic commerce, in the Internal Market (‘Directive on electronic commerce’) ( OJ 2000 L 178, p. 19.