European UnionePrivacy Directive
Officially ePrivacy Directive, Confidentiality of Communications
Directive 2002/58/EC, Art. 5(1) and (2)
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What follows is LexLint's own research summary of this law, not legal advice.
In force since .
An interception and recording consent rule binding public and private bodies.
As of .
What it requires
- Do not listen to, tap, store, or otherwise intercept or monitor the content or related traffic data of a communication carried over a public electronic communications network without the consent of the users concerned, unless a Member State has authorised it under Article 15(1) for national security, defence, public security, or the investigation and prosecution of crime.
- A recording made in the course of lawful business practice to evidence a commercial transaction or other business communication falls outside the consent rule above; check the Member State's own transposition for any further condition it sets on this exception.
If you get it wrong
Criminal exposureNo
Criminal exposure note
Article 15a(1) requires Member States to lay down penalties 'including criminal sanctions where appropriate' for an infringement of any provision adopted under this Directive, but the Directive itself does not make a breach a criminal offence; whether an Article 5 infringement is prosecuted as a crime is entirely a matter for each Member State's own transposing law.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
Each Member State's own competent national authority and, where relevant, other national bodies designated under Article 15a(2) to (4). The Directive states no equivalent to Article 13(6)'s private-suit clause for Article 5.
What it reaches
Obligation class
Consent, Prohibition
What this law does
Drafted with AI from the cited sources under the direction of UnGovr staff. UnGovr holds editorial responsibility for this page.
Article 5(1) requires Member States to prohibit listening to, tapping, storing, or otherwise intercepting or surveilling a communication and its related traffic data by anyone other than the users, without the users' consent, except where a Member State has authorised it under Article 15(1) for national security, defence, public security, or the investigation and prosecution of crime.
Article 5(2) carves a recording made in the course of lawful business practice to evidence a commercial transaction or other business communication out of that consent rule; the Directive's own recitals expect the parties to be told before such a recording is made, though that expectation is not stated as an operative duty of the Article itself, and each Member State's transposition sets any further condition on the exception.
When LexLint raises it
records_conversationsprocesses_voice
Read the law
Every line above is drawn from the primary source linked here, read on the date shown. This is a research summary, not legal advice.