Decision n° 2018-765 DC, June 12, 2018 – Law on private data protection
- 2018
- France
Topics
Public securityLegal bases
Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016Courts
Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel), FranceLaws
Right to respect for private and family lifeFacts
The Constitutional Council ruled on the law on personal data protection. The request was submitted by more than 60 MPs.
Legal grounds
The main purpose of this law is to amend national legislation on the personal data protection in order to adapt it to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 and to transpose Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016. The senators also contested a lack of accessibility and intelligibility of the entire law and about ten of its articles.
Findings
The Constitutional Council ruled that the legislator has defined appropriate guarantees for the protection of the rights and freedoms of persons subject to individual administrative decisions taken on the exclusive basis of an algorithm. On the other hand, the Council censored the words "under the control of public authority". It held that Article 10 of the European Regulation of 27 April 2016 does not allow the processing of personal data in criminal matters not covered by the Directive on the same day as in certain cases. The legislator has confined itself to reproducing these terms in the contested provisions, without determining either the categories of persons likely to act under the control of the public authority or the purposes to be pursued by the implementation of such data processing. Because of their scope, these provisions affect, by their consequences, the fundamental rights granted to citizens for the exercise of civil liberties. As a result, the words "under the control of public authority" are vitiated by negative incompetence and therefore contrary to the Constitution.