Article 5Confidentiality of the communications

Official text

Read from the EU Publications Office for this CELEX number. The wording stands as published; nothing here is rewritten or summarised.

Open the article on EUR-Lex

Related articles

Articles in other acts connected to this one, with the reason written against the text. The map is a route between acts, not an assessment.

• Depends on · outgoingGDPR · 6

  The protection of confidentiality of communications rests on a consent whose meaning is taken from the data protection regulation, which also carries the other bases.

  CELEX 32016R0679 · 2026-08-18

Decisions applying this article

Court, citation and the paragraphs of the reasons where the article is dealt with.

• C-673/17 · Planet492019-10-01

  Court of Justice of the European Union

  Whether a pre-ticked box can amount to consent to storing cookies on a user's device.

  Paragraphs 49, 63, 65

Judgments of the Court of Justice

4 decisions

• C-470/21Court of Justice of the European Union2024-04-30

  La Quadrature du Net and Others v Premier ministre and Ministère de la Culture

  Reference for a preliminary ruling – Processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector – Directive 2002/58/EC – Confidentiality of electronic communications – Protection – Article 5 and Article 15(1) – Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Articles 7, 8 and 11 and Article 52(1) – National legislation aimed at combating, through action by a public authority, counterfeiting offences committed on the internet – ‘Graduated response’ procedure – Upstream collection by rightholder organisations of IP addresses used for activities infringing copyright or related rights – Downstream access by the public authority responsible for the protection of copyright and related rights to data relating to the civil identity associated with those IP addresses retained by providers of electronic communications services – Automated processing – Requirement of prior review by a court or an independent administrative body – Substantive and procedural conditions – Safeguards against the risks of abuse and against any unlawful access to or use of those data.

• C-129/21Court of Justice of the European Union2022-10-27

  Proximus NV v Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit

  Reference for a preliminary ruling – Processing of personal data and protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector – Directive 2002/58/EC – Article 12 – Public telephone directories and directory enquiry services – Subscriber’s consent – Obligations of the provider of directories and of directory enquiry services – Regulation (EU) 2016/679 – Article 17 – Right to erasure (‘right to be forgotten’) – Article 5(2) – Article 24 – Information obligations and responsibility of the controller.

• C-623/17Court of Justice of the European Union2020-10-06

  Privacy International v Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs and Others

  Reference for a preliminary ruling – Processing of personal data in the electronic communications sector – Providers of electronic communications services – General and indiscriminate transmission of traffic data and location data – Safeguarding of national security – Directive 2002/58/EC – Scope – Article 1(3) and Article 3 – Confidentiality of electronic communications – Protection – Article 5 and Article 15(1) – Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union – Articles 7, 8 and 11 and Article 52(1) – Article 4(2) TEU.

• C-207/16Court of Justice of the European Union2018-10-02

  Proceedings brought by Ministerio Fiscal

  Reference for a preliminary ruling — Electronic communications — Processing of personal data — Directive 2002/58/EC — Articles 1 and 3 — Scope — Confidentiality of electronic communications — Protection — Article 5 and Article 15(1) — Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union — Articles 7 and 8 — Data processed in connection with the provision of electronic communications services — Access of national authorities to the data for the purposes of an investigation — Threshold of seriousness of an offence capable of justifying access to the data.