EU Cases Flashcards
What was the Google Spain case about?
In this case on the right to be forgotten, the ECJ held that where individuals object and certain circumstances are met, search engines must remove the list of results displayed following a search made on the persons name, links to webpages published by third parties, and results that contain information relating to that person.
Activities of Google Spain SL in promoting and selling advertising space in Spain on behalf of Google Inc was sufficient to satisfy 4(1)(a) of Directive as “the activities relating to the advertising space constitutes the means of rendering the search engine economically profitable and the engine is, at the same time, the means enabling these activities to be performed.
What is the Digital Rights Ireland case about?
In this case, the ECJ examined whether or not the Data Retention Directive was valid in light of articles 7, 8 and 11 of the charter. In determining the Data Retention Directive’s invalidity, the ECJ laid out arguments later relied upon when examining the specific aspects that lead to invalidating the Commission’s decision regarding Safe Harbour
What was the ANAF case about?
Personal data may not be transferred between public administrative bodies of a member state without individuals being informed of the transfer
What is the Weltimmo case about?
The ECJ intervened to clarify how data protection law applies in cross-border situations within the EU. Specifically, the ECJ took the view that an organisation may be established where it exercises “through stable arrangements in the territory of that member state, a real and effective activity even a minimal one”.
The presence of a single representative may be sufficient to satisfy their being an establishment.
Some of the relevant factors taken into account:
- The website was mainly all entirely directed at Hungary, as evidenced by the fact that it concerned properties situated in Hungary and was written in Hungarian.
The company had a representative in Hungary who represented the company in at ministrative and judicial proceedings
- The company had Opened a bank account in Hungary, intended for the recovery of its debts.
- The company used a letterbox in Hungary for the management of its every day Business affairs.
- However, the nationality of the data subject was irrelevant.
What was the Schrems ruling of October 2015 about?
The ECJ invalidated the commissions decision that safe harbour was adequate as a framework to legitimise International data transfers to the United States.
What is the Patrick Breyer case about?
CJEU took the view that dynamic IP addresses could constitute personal data on the grounds that a person could be indirectly identified if the IP addresses were combined with data held by Internet service providers, such as the time of connection and the pages visited on the website.
The CJEU decided that, in circumstances where a third party holds information likely to be used to identify the website user when put together with the dynamic IP addresses helped by the provider of that website, those IP addresses constitute personal data.
What is the VKI case about?
CJEU confirmed that the fact that a company has a website which is accessible by a member state is not sufficient to make it established there.
Whether Processing is carried out “in the context of the activities of a particular establishment, is a question which should be determined by the National referring court (Austria in this case).
What is the impact of the Lindqvist case?
CJEY held personal website relating to individuals she worked with on a voluntary basis in her parish church does not fall within the household exemption as the data is made accessible to an indefinite number of people.
Has been criticised by WP29 as unrealistic in scope.
An individual who merely loads personal Information onto a website that is hosted in that state or another member state so that info can be accessed by anyone who connects to the Internet does not constitute a transfer of data to a third country.
What does the Rynes case about?
CJEU held that the household exemption in Article 3(2) of the Directive should be narrowly construed. The case involved use of a security camera for a private residence that captured images of a public footpath outside the home.
In that case, the processing of personal data for the purposes of domestic closed-circuit television was not, in the opinion of the CJEU, a purely personal or household activity in contrast with correspondence and the keeping of an address book.
What is the MM v UK case about?
Court held that, although there might be a need for a comprehensive report of data relating to criminal matters, the indiscriminate and open-ended collection of criminal record data is unlikely to comply with article 8. Compliance would require clear and detailed statutory regulations clarifying the safeguards applicable and governing the use and disposal of such data, particularly bearing in mind the amount and sensitivity of the data.
What is the Vidal-Hall v Google Inc case about?
In this case, the claimants successfully argued before the English CoA that profiles of their browsing habits constituted personal data and that Google’s use of these profiles to target ads to their devices was objectionable precisely because other individuals might use their device and deduce information about the claimants’ browsing habits from the targeted ads which appeared. The point here is that, even if Google did not know who was using the device at any particular point in time, third-party users of the device were likely to possess this information.
