Can data collected to combat serious crime be used in subsequent administrative investigations pursuant to the e-privacy Directive? Some thoughts on the Lietuvos Respublikos generalinė prokuratūra judgment

The Lietuvos Respublikos generalinė prokuratūra judgment, issued by the Court of Justice of the EU on 7 September 2023, adds another piece to the long lasting “data retention saga” in the framework of Art. 15, para. 1, of Directive 2002/58/EC under the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights. The Court holds that this legal background precludes the subsequent use, in connection with administrative investigations into corruption in the public sector, of data previously collected for the purpose of combating serious crime. The present blog post analyses the main findings of the Court in relation to its latest case law on data retention and possible evolutions of EU secondary law.