European Court Kills Passenger-data Transfer

The European Court of Justice in Luxembourg has ruled that a 2004 arrangement between the United States and the European Commission contravenes European Community law and must be halted. Under the agreement, which was opposed by the European Parliament, airlines were required to submit passenger name records to U.S. officials or forfeit their rights to land at U.S. airports. Despite airlines’ having spent large sums of money to comply with the requirement, the court found the deal illegal on technical grounds. The European Parliament had challenged the deal for a number of reasons, technical issues being just one. After ruling on the technical question, however, the court ended its inquiry, disappointing the European Parliament, which had hoped the court would rule on privacy concerns it raised in its case against the deal.

CNET, 30 May 2006