French Council of State rules on compatibility of France’s Constitution and data laws with EU law

The French Council of State (Conseil d’État) has delivered a judgment today in its French Data Networks et autres case, finding that the EU data protection legal framework and the Court of Justice’s case law allows for the general retention of data currently imposed on operators by French law, and that EU law requirements concerning data protection and the French constitutional provisions on law enforcement and counterterrorism are compatible.

It reached that conclusion by reasoning that, in compliance with EU law requirements, the need for such general retention is justified by a threat to national security. The judgment comes in response to the Court of Justice’s preliminary ruling in La Quadrature du Net e.a (C-511/18, C-512/18