Reports of Cases

published in the electronic Reports of Cases (Court Reports - general)

Subject-matter

Failure of a Member State to fulfil its obligations – Infringement of the second subparagraph of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (OJ 1995 L 281, p. 31) – Obligation for the Member States to ensure that the national supervisory authorities responsible for supervising the processing of personal data exercise their duties entirely independently – Close personal and organisational connections between the supervisory authority and the Federal Chancellor’s Office (Bundeskanzleramt) – Subjection of the supervisory authority to the supervision of the Federal Chancellor

Systematic classification scheme

Citations of case-law or legislation

References in grounds of judgment

• Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (2007), Article 8 -P3 : paragraph 36
• TFEU, Article 16 -P2 : paragraph 36
• TFEU, Article 267 : paragraphs 39, 40
• Directive 95/46 -A28P1L2 : paragraphs 1, 2, 36 - 66
• Regulation 45/2001 : paragraphs 3, 58
• Regulation 45/2001 -A43P3 : paragraphs 4, 58
• Court of Justice - Judgment C -518/07 : paragraphs 37, 40, 41, 51, 52

Operative part

• Reference : Directive 95/46 -A28P1L2

Opinion

• EC Treaty (Amsterdam), Article 266 : point 1
  
• EC Treaty (Amsterdam), Article 286 : point 7
  
• TFEU, Article 258 : point 1
  
• TFEU, Article 267 : points 23, 25, 43
  
• Directive 95/46 : point 33
  
• Directive 95/46 -A01P1 : point 5
  
• Directive 95/46 -A01P2 : point 5
  
• Directive 95/46 -A28 : point 7
  
• Directive 95/46 -A28P1 : points 2, 6, 18 - 34, 45
  
• Directive 95/46 -A28P1L2 : points 1, 46
  
• Directive 95/46 -C62 : point 6
  
• Regulation 45/2001 : points 7, 21, 33
  
• Regulation 45/2001 -A44 : point 7
  
• Regulation 45/2001 -A44P3 : point 33
  
• Directive 2002/21 -C11 : point 39
  
• Directive 2008/6 -C47 : point 39
  
• Court of Justice - Judgment C -246/05 : point 23
  
• Court of Justice - Judgment C -195/06 : point 23
  
• Court of Justice - Judgment C -518/07 : points 2, 24, 26, 28, 32, 43
  
• Court of Justice - Judgment C -205/08 : point 23
  
• Court of Justice - Judgment C -92/09 : point 33
  

Dates

Date of the lodging of the application initiating proceedings

• 22/12/2010

Date of the Opinion

• 03/07/2012

Date of the hearing

Information not available

Date of delivery

16/10/2012

References

Publication in the Official Journal

Application: OJ C 72 from 05.03.2011, p.13

Judgment: OJ C 379 from 08.12.2012, p.6

Name of the parties

Commission v Austria

Notes on Academic Writings

1. Gazin, Fabienne: Protection des données à caractère personnel, Europe 2012 Décembre Comm. nº 12 p.11 (FR)
2. Schmidl, Matthias: Die österreichische Datenschutzkommission erfüllt nach Ansicht des Gerichtshofes der Europäischen Union nicht das Kriterium der «völligen» Unabhängigkeit, European Law Reporter 2012 p.292-294 (DE)
3. Kondylis, Vassilios: Vers la construction d'un droit euorpéen des autorités administratives indépendantes, Revue des affaires européennes 2012 p.829-838 (FR)
4. Tepina, Polona: Elementi neodvisnosti nadzornih organov za varstvo osebnih podatkov, Pravna praksa 2012 nº 44 p.23-24 (SL)
5. Soós, Andrea Klára: Az adatvédelmi hatóságok "teljes függetlensége": az Európai Unió Bíróságának gyakorlata, Infokommunikáció és jog 2012 nº 52-53 p.219-223 (HU)
6. Tinç, Mehmet: Jurisprudence de la Cour de justice de l'Union européenne en matière de droits fondamentaux, L'Europe des libertés: revue d'actualité juridique 2012 nº 39/40 p.64-65 (FR)
7. Ziebarth, Wolfgang: Demokratische Legitimation und Unabhängigkeit der deutschen Datenschutzbehörden, Computer und Recht 2013 p.60-68 (DE)
8. Pabel, Katharina: Ungenügende Unabhängigkeit der Datenschutzkommission, Österreichische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 2013 p.25-28 (DE)
9. Szydło, Marek: Principles underlying independence of national data protection authorities: Commission v. Austria, Common Market Law Review 2013 p.1809-1826 (EN)
10. Bresich, Ronald ; Riedl, Eckhard ; Souhrada-Kirchmayer, Eva: Die völlig unabhängige Datenschutzkontrollstelle - Mit der DSG-Novelle 2013 wurde das EuGH-Urteil zur Unabhängigkeit der Datenschutzkommission umgesetzt, Zeitschrift für Europarecht, internationales Privatrecht und Rechtsvergleichung 2014 p.52-61 (DE)
11. Scheppele, Kim Lane: Commissione c. Ungheria : come rendere più efficaci le procedure di infrazione, Quaderni costituzionali 2014 p.725-730 (IT)

Procedural Analysis Information

Source of the question referred for a preliminary ruling

Information not available

Subject-matter

• Approximation of laws
  
• Fundamental rights
  
• Data protection
  

Provisions of national law referred to

Information not available

Provisions of international law referred to

Information not available

Procedure and result

• Action for a declaration of failure to fulfil obligations : application granted
  

Formation of the Court

grande chambre (Cour)

Judge-Rapporteur

Lenaerts

Advocate General

Mazák

Language(s) of the Case

• German
  

Language(s) of the Opinion

• French