Data retention in Czech Republic: past, present and future

This paper examines the legal questions related with the implementation of the electronic communications data retention in the Czech Republic as prescribed by the Directive 2006/24/EC. Firstly, the evolution of the data retention legislation, including the regulation that was in effect before the Directive is presented. As in other Member States (e.g. Romania and Germany) the implementation was challenged before the Constitutional Court and declared unconstitutional - mainly because of its vagueness. Therefore the rulings of the Constitutional court are analysed. However as stated by the Czech Constitutional Court „the subject matter of the Directive nevertheless leaves the Czech Republic enough possibilities to transpose it into the national law in conformity with the Constitution“. The new “data retention reloaded” legislation is assessed whether it meets the requirement foreseen by the Constitutional Court. The paper concludes with general remarks on the further development of data retention in the Czech Republic in the context of the pending cases before the Court of Justice of the European Union dealing with the proportionality of the Directive 2006/24/EC