The Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has presented his conclusions on the compliance of a Belgian national legislation on the retention of electronic communications data with Union law.

Referred by the Belgian Constitutional Court, the CJEU must rule on the compatibility of a 2022 law with Union law. This Belgian legislation regulates the retention of identification, traffic, and location data by electronic communications service providers for the purposes of combating fraud and threats to network security. In his conclusions of 3 September 2026, the Advocate General proposes that the Court declare that Union law opposes several provisions of this law. He recalls that the retention of such data constitutes an interference with the fundamental rights to respect for private life and to the protection of personal data, which is only admissible if it is provided for by law, strictly necessary, and proportionate. The assessment of this compatibility depends on the severity of the interference and the importance of the pursued objective.