Important ECJ ruling on video surveillance

On 11.12.2019 the Court of Justice of the European Union has given judgement ECLI:EU:C:2019:1064 following a request for a preliminary ruling under Article 267 TFEU from the Bucharest Regional Court. CJEU has ruled in favor of the legitimacy of video surveillance systems installed in the common parts of residential buildings, for the purposes of pursuing legitimate interests of ensuring the safety and protection of individuals and property, without the consent of the data subjects.

More specifically CJEU ruled that Article 6(1)(c) and Article 7(f) 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, read in the light of Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, must be interpreted as not precluding national provisions which authorise the installation of a video surveillance system, such as the system at issue in the main proceedings, installed in the common parts of a residential building, for the purposes of pursuing legitimate interests of ensuring the safety and protection of individuals and property, without the consent of the data subjects, if the processing of personal data carried out by means of the video surveillance system at issue fulfils the conditions laid down in Article 7(f), which it is for the national court to determine.

It should be noted that Directive 95/46 was repealed and replaced, with effect from 25 May 2018, by Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (GDPR). However, the above CJEU judgement read in the light of the GDPR provisions could provide useful guidance in relation to the installation of video surveillance systems.

If you have any queries in relation to the legitimacy of personal data processing, please contact us.

article source:

curia.europa.eu