03/02/2020
CURIA - Documents
its non-compliance with the Principles is limited to the extent necessary to meet the overriding legitimate interests
furthered by such authorisation’.
In this connection, Decision 2000/520 states in Part B of Annex IV, with regard to the limits to which the safe
harbour principles’ applicability is subject, that, ‘[c]learly, where US law imposes a conflicting obligation, US
organisations whether in the safe harbour or not must comply with the law’.
Thus, Decision 2000/520 lays down that ‘national security, public interest, or law enforcement requirements’ have
primacy over the safe harbour principles, primacy pursuant to which self-certified United States organisations
receiving personal data from the European Union are bound to disregard those principles without limitation where
they conflict with those requirements and therefore prove incompatible with them.
In the light of the general nature of the derogation set out in the fourth paragraph of Annex I to Decision
2000/520, that decision thus enables interference, founded on national security and public interest requirements or
on domestic legislation of the United States, with the fundamental rights of the persons whose personal data is or
could be transferred from the European Union to the United States. To establish the existence of an interference
with the fundamental right to respect for private life, it does not matter whether the information in question
relating to private life is sensitive or whether the persons concerned have suffered any adverse consequences on
account of that interference (judgment in Digital Rights Ireland and Others, C‑293/12 and C‑594/12,
EU:C:2014:238, paragraph 33 and the case-law cited).
In addition, Decision 2000/520 does not contain any finding regarding the existence, in the United States, of rules
adopted by the State intended to limit any interference with the fundamental rights of the persons whose data is
transferred from the European Union to the United States, interference which the State entities of that country
would be authorised to engage in when they pursue legitimate objectives, such as national security.
Nor does Decision 2000/520 refer to the existence of effective legal protection against interference of that kind. As
the Advocate General has observed in points 204 to 206 of his Opinion, procedures before the Federal Trade
Commission — the powers of which, described in particular in FAQ 11 set out in Annex II to that decision, are
limited to commercial disputes — and the private dispute resolution mechanisms concern compliance by the United
States undertakings with the safe harbour principles and cannot be applied in disputes relating to the legality of
interference with fundamental rights that results from measures originating from the State.
Moreover, the foregoing analysis of Decision 2000/520 is borne out by the Commission’s own assessment of the
situation resulting from the implementation of that decision. Particularly in points 2 and 3.2 of Communication
COM(2013) 846 final and in points 7.1, 7.2 and 8 of Communication COM(2013) 847 final, the content of which is
set out in paragraphs 13 to 16 and paragraphs 22, 23 and 25 of the present judgment respectively, the
Commission found that the United States authorities were able to access the personal data transferred from the
Member States to the United States and process it in a way incompatible, in particular, with the purposes for which
it was transferred, beyond what was strictly necessary and proportionate to the protection of national security.
Also, the Commission noted that the data subjects had no administrative or judicial means of redress enabling, in
particular, the data relating to them to be accessed and, as the case may be, rectified or erased.
As regards the level of protection of fundamental rights and freedoms that is guaranteed within the European
Union, EU legislation involving interference with the fundamental rights guaranteed by Articles 7 and 8 of the
Charter must, according to the Court’s settled case-law, lay down clear and precise rules governing the scope and
application of a measure and imposing minimum safeguards, so that the persons whose personal data is concerned
have sufficient guarantees enabling their data to be effectively protected against the risk of abuse and against any
unlawful access and use of that data. The need for such safeguards is all the greater where personal data is
subjected to automatic processing and where there is a significant risk of unlawful access to that data (judgment in
Digital Rights Ireland and Others, C‑293/12 and C‑594/12, EU:C:2014:238, paragraphs 54 and 55 and the case-law
cited).
Furthermore and above all, protection of the fundamental right to respect for private life at EU level requires
derogations and limitations in relation to the protection of personal data to apply only in so far as is strictly
necessary (judgment in Digital Rights Ireland and Others, C‑293/12 and C‑594/12, EU:C:2014:238, paragraph 52
and the case-law cited).
Legislation is not limited to what is strictly necessary where it authorises, on a generalised basis, storage of all the
personal data of all the persons whose data has been transferred from the European Union to the United States
without any differentiation, limitation or exception being made in the light of the objective pursued and without an
objective criterion being laid down by which to determine the limits of the access of the public authorities to the
data, and of its subsequent use, for purposes which are specific, strictly restricted and capable of justifying the
interference which both access to that data and its use entail (see, to this effect, concerning Directive 2006/24/EC
of the European Parliament and of the Council of 15 March 2006 on the retention of data generated or processed in
connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications
networks and amending Directive 2002/58/EC (OJ 2006 L 105, p. 54), judgment in Digital Rights Ireland and
Others, C‑293/12 and C‑594/12, EU:C:2014:238, paragraphs 57 to 61).
In particular, legislation permitting the public authorities to have access on a generalised basis to the content of
electronic communications must be regarded as compromising the essence of the fundamental right to respect for
private life, as guaranteed by Article 7 of the Charter (see, to this effect, judgment in Digital Rights Ireland and
Others, C‑293/12 and C��594/12, EU:C:2014:238, paragraph 39).
Likewise, legislation not providing for any possibility for an individual to pursue legal remedies in order to have
access to personal data relating to him, or to obtain the rectification or erasure of such data, does not respect the
essence of the fundamental right to effective judicial protection, as enshrined in Article 47 of the Charter. The first
paragraph of Article 47 of the Charter requires everyone whose rights and freedoms guaranteed by the law of the
European Union are violated to have the right to an effective remedy before a tribunal in compliance with the
conditions laid down in that article. The very existence of effective judicial review designed to ensure compliance
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