Case Law Survey On Data Protection – COVID-19 Litigation Project

Abstract

The article aims at analyzing the data protection case law collected within the COVID-19 Litigation project until November 2021. In particular, the survey focuses on litigation concerning cases where the processing of personal data is directly aimed at addressing the ongoing pandemic. The article firstly provides a very brief overview of the cases, focusing on the purposes of processing (Section 2). Then, the decisions are described in relation to the legal issues they address: the grounds for the processing of public interest and consent (Section 3), the different aspects of personal data processing that have been considered by the Court (Section 4), data transfers outside external borders (Section 5), and the remedies that courts have granted in individual cases, building a classification of those remedies (Section 6). In the course of the analysis, as well as in Section 7, case law trends are critically considered, also looking at future litigation and possible lines of research to be further developed.

Keywords: data protection, judicial dialogue, COVID-19, pandemic, litigation, personal data, proportionality, case law, privacy