20150225 Ungarn bitten um Hilfe gegen VDS

25.02.2015 Ungarn bitten um Hilfe gegen VDS

Hungarian Civils Rights Group against Data Retention Law (VDS)

In their fight against the national hungarian law for data retention (VDS) the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union is seeking urgent support from organizations active in the field to file amicus curiae briefs.

In April 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union invalidated the Data Retention Directive, which unified the rules of the retention of selective data by Internet and telephone service providers and determined the accessibility of data by authorities in the member states. Despite this judgment, the Hungarian act allowing data retention is still in force. In October 2014, the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union started litigation against two major service providers in an attempt to get the Hungarian Constitutional Court to repeal the unlawful act.

Due to recent reforms of Hungarian law and, specifically, to the jurisdiction of Constitutional Court, HCLU cannot directly refer to the court to establish that the law on data retention is against the Fundamental Law of Hungary (the country's constitution).

Instead, HCLU requested in writing that the Internet or telephone service providers eliminate any retained traffic data; the service providers refused this request, citing the current legislation. HCLU then brought legal action against the service providers, and during the trial requested that the case be referred directly to the Constitutional Court (judicial initiative for norm control in a concrete case).

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