On the draft legislation from the German Federal Government for Blanket Data Retention published on the weekend, Oliver Süme, eco Director of Policy and Law, states:
“Renewed investment and legal uncertainty is looming again for affected companies with the planned reintroduction of Blanket Data Retention, as is a massive encroachment into the privacy of citizens. From my perspective, it is irresponsible and unacceptable that the German Federal Government wants to establish and enforce such a far-reaching law so hastily. In this way, an urgently needed political debate about the fundamentals will be stifled. The draft legislation raises many questions and documents the fact that the Federal Government is unaware of the legal and technical challenges of such groundless and comprehensive data retention. Since the verdict of the Federal Constitutional Court in 2010 at the very latest, it has been clear that a constitutional implementation of Blanket Data Retention in Germany is not possible. With the planned law, a new process in front of the Federal Constitutional Court is practically pre-ordained. This time again, the affected Internet and telecommunication companies, who will be left with an estimated 600m Euros in costs for the implementation of a meritless piece of legislation, will be the ones to foot the bill.”
