Private data and fight against counterfeiting: EU Advocate General Opinion in Case C-470/21 La Quadrature du Net and other

Thursday 28th September 2022

Opinion in Case C-470/21 La Quadrature du Net and others (Private data and fight against counterfeiting)

(Approximation of Laws)

The role of the High Authority for the Distribution of Works and the Protection of Rights on the Internet (Hadopi) in France is to ensure that property rights are respected. When an infringement of copyright by a user of an online public communication service is detected, Hadopi sends that person a recommendation to refrain from any further infringement, followed by a further warning if the infringement is repeated. If the first two warnings are ignored and a third infringement occurs, Hadopi may refer the matter to the relevant judicial authority for criminal prosecution.

This graduated response system presupposes that the rights protection commission can identify the perpetrator of the infringement in order to send him or her these recommendations. To do this, a decree adopted in 2010 enables Hadopi to collect connection data, in particular IP addresses. It then passes this data on to electronic communications operators so that they can return the civil identity data of the users to whom these IP addresses are assigned.

Four associations for the protection of rights and freedoms on the Internet are challenging the adoption of this decree in court, and the French Council of State is questioning whether the collection of civil identity data corresponding to IP addresses, as well as the automated processing of this data, for the purposes of preventing infringements of intellectual property rights, without prior control by a court or an administrative body, is compatible with European Union law.

Background Documents C-470/21