Highest EU court rules airline data deal with US illegal

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EU court blocks data deal with US

Tuesday, 30 May 2006

The European Court of Justice has blocked an EU-US agreement that allows European airline passenger data to be transferred to the US authorities.
The Luxembourg court said there was no legal basis for the EU decision to declare US data protection "adequate".

European airlines have been obliged to give US authorities passengers' names, addresses and credit card details.

The measure - opposed by the European Parliament - was designed to help prevent acts of terrorism.

The agreement demands that within 15 minutes of take-off for the United States, a European airline must send the US authorities 34 items of personal information about the passengers on board.

Washington has warned that it will impose heavy fines and deny landing rights for any airline failing to comply with the agreement.

The US demanded tighter airline security worldwide after the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington by suicide hijackers.

Parliament opposition

The European Commission, EU governments and the US had signed the deal despite privacy objections from the European Parliament.

The parliament asked the European Court of Justice to annul the deal.

In its ruling on Tuesday, the court found that the EU Council of Ministers' decision to sign the agreement on "Passenger Name Records" lacked an adequate legal basis.

"Consequently, the Court annulled the Council decision approving the conclusion of the agreement," a court press release said.

But the court gave EU member states until 30 September 2006 to find a new legal solution "for reasons of legal certainty".

EU and US officials insisted the data gathered would only be used to fight terrorism and other serious crimes.

The European Commission took the decision under the EU Data Protection Directive, but the directive does not apply to data collected for security purposes.

The case against the data deal was brought by the European Data Protection Supervisor, in support of the parliament. The court said it was the supervisor's first such intervention.

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Quote:

THE COURT ANNULS THE COUNCIL DECISION CONCERNING THE CONCLUSION OF AN AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ON THE PROCESSING AND TRANSFER OF PERSONAL DATA AND THE COMMISSION DECISION ON THE ADEQUATE PROTECTION OF THOSE DATA

Neither the Commission decision finding that the data are adequately protected by the United States nor the Council decision approving the conclusion of an agreement on their transfer to that country are founded on an appropriate legal basis

Source and full Press Release (PDF-data)

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Quote:

Washington has warned that it will impose heavy fines and deny landing rights for any airline failing to comply with the agreement.

Sounds good to me. Simple enough solution: No data - no entrance.

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SierraSong wrote:

Sounds good to me. Simple enough solution: No data - no entrance.

Hmm, we should stop businesses between the US and the EU.

Honestly, I don't care a lot that the US now knows what my food preferences on planes are and why I cancelled when what flight.

Although, they knew that already long before I entered.

It's okay, though, that they asked me about the names and addresses, where they studied and what ... of the people I wanted to meet.

But actually, the court didn't rule about the US GETTING data but the airlines giving them against the law and the European Convention of Human Rights.

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If the EU wants to protect their data it is really their call, and I respect that. They can fly all they want, just not to the US.

Don't get your panties all in a bunch, though. I'm sure the big Euro airlines and businesses will realize the almighty buck will stop with this law and they will find a way to support sharing the data. :wink:

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SierraSong wrote:

Don't get your panties all in a bunch, though. I'm sure the big Euro airlines and businesses will realize the almighty buck will stop with this law and they will find a way to support sharing the data. :wink:

They've said already that they will ignore.

Quote:

The United States, the executive European Commission and European airlines said the court's ruling would have no immediate impact on trans-atlantic air travel and left time to find an agreed solution to the data transfer issue.

Reuters

Until the first start to sue them ... and they'll loose the licenses. :wink:

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Quote:

Frattini stressed nevertheless that if no agreement were reached before September 30, "we could face really huge problems".

LOL. No ****.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

But actually, the court didn't rule about the US GETTING data but the airlines giving them against the law and the European Convention of Human Rights.

That's not the sense I am getting from the press release you posted. As I understand it, the court sacked the agreement on a separation-of-power argument, then decided it needn't consider the European Parliament's substantive arguments about rights. Here is what I consider the key paragraphs.

On 17 May 2004, the Council adopted a decision approving the conclusion of an agreement between the European Community and the United States on the processing and transfer of PNR data by air carriers established in Member States of the Community to CBP. That agreement was signed in Washington on 28 May 2004 and entered into force on the same day. The European Parliament applied to the Court of Justice of the European Communities for annulment of the Council decision (Case C-317/04) and of the decision on adequacy (Case C-318/04), contending, in particular, that adoption of the decision on adequacy was ultra vires, that Article 95 EC does not constitute an appropriate legal basis for the decision approving the conclusion of the agreement and, in both cases, that fundamental rights have been infringed. [i][skip the analysis on which the court dismisses the legal basis the European Commission thought it had for its decision. T.][/i] The Court thus concluded that the decision on adequacy does not fall within the scope of the directive because it concerns processing of personal data that is excluded from the scope of the directive. Consequently, the Court annulled the decision on adequacy. The Court added that it was no longer necessary to consider the other pleas relied upon by the Parliament.
Again: Notice that the court does not decide whether fundamental rights have been violated. The European Parliament claimed they have, but the court does not reach the merits of that claim.

I guess the United States will now make contracts with each of the EU's member states. The court rules they have until September to do that. Maybe some diplomats will have to cancel their summer vacation on both sides of the Atlantic, but I don't see how this ruling would cause any major disruption in travel between the US and Europe.

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Thomas wrote:

I guess the United States will now make contracts with each of the EU's member states. The court rules they have until September to do that. Maybe some diplomats will have to cancel their summer vacation on both sides of the Atlantic, but I don't see how this ruling would cause any major disruption in travel between the US and Europe.

That would be one possibility.

My idea is that the European parliament now gets involved in the planning (which is the background of their suing of the Commission and Council).

As far as I understand the various the commenators, the EU parliament doesn't want the "Passenger name record"-data to be transmitted. They think, those data normally given when entering (done in the plane before entering) are enough ...

I really can't imagine that the USA will make 25 seperate contracts, each EU state then had to make contracts with various airlines ... ... ... and the EU-parliament did nothing.

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Walter Hinteler wrote:

My idea is that the European parliament now gets involved in the planning (which is the background of their suing of the Commission and Council).

Sounds reasonable. In either case, the main consequence of the ruling will be to weaken the European Commission's standing as a partner in international negotiations. As a skeptic on giving more power to the EU, I like that.

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Highest EU court rules airline data deal with US illegal

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