The Judgment of the Court of Justice

On 9 March 2010 the Court of Justice has issued its judgment regarding the Case C-518/07 (European Commission supported by European Data Protection Supervisor v Federal Republic of Germany): Failure of a Member State to fulfil obligations – Directive 95/46/EC – Protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and the free movement of such data – Article 28(1) – National supervisory authorities – Independence – Administrative scrutiny of those authorities. It was the action under Article 226 EC for failure to fulfil obligations, brought on 22 November 2007.

The Court:

1. Declared that, by making the authorities responsible for monitoring the processing of personal data by non-public bodies and undertakings governed by public law which compete on the market (öffentlich-rechtliche Wettbewerbsunternehmen) in the different Länder subject to State scrutiny, and by thus incorrectly transposing the requirement that those authorities perform their functions ‘with complete independence’, the Federal Republic of Germany failed to fulfil its obligations under the second subparagraph of Article 28(1) 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;

2. Ordered the Federal Republic of Germany to pay the costs of the Commission;

3. Ordered the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) to bear his own costs.

The Judgement is available at: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=CELEX:62007J0518:EN:HTML