EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 237/29

(Case C-178/22)

(2022/C 237/38)

Language of the case: Italian

Referring court

Party to the main proceedings

Question referred

Does Article 15(1) of Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 (1) preclude a provision of national law such as that contained in Article 132 of Legislative Decree No 196 of 30 June 2003 (the Privacy Code), paragraph 3 of which was amended by Decree-Law No 132 of 30 September 2021, converted, with amendments, into Law No 178 of 23 November 2021 and, in its current version, provides:

Within the retention period laid down by law, if there is sufficient evidence of the commission of an offence for which the law prescribes the penalty of life imprisonment or a maximum term of imprisonment of at least three years, determined in accordance with Article 4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, or of an offence of threatening and harassing or disturbing persons by means of the telephone, where the threat or disturbance is serious, the data may, if relevant to establishing the facts, be acquired with the prior authorisation of the court, by way of reasoned order, at the request of the Public Prosecutor or upon an application by the legal representative of the accused, of the person under investigation, of the injured party or of any other private party’

(1) Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) (OJ 2002 L 201, p. 37).