CJEU advocate general backs antitrust authorities looking into privacy

A non-binding opinion from Court of Justice of the European Union Advocate General Athanasios Rantos states that a competition authority may take into account the compatibility of a commercial activity with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. The opinion is in response to a case between the German Federal Competition Authority and Meta. Rantos said, "while a competition authority does not have jurisdiction to rule on an infringement of the GDPR, it may nevertheless, in the exercise of its own powers, take account of the compatibility of a commercial practice with the GDPR." In two separate releases issued Sept. 20 — case numbers 156 and 157 — the CJEU confirmed that EU law "precludes ... indiscriminate retention of traffic and location data," except when there's a serious threat to national security. Case number 157 pertains to retention of traffic data by electronic communications providers.