Court of Justice of the European Union — A
The CJEU issued a preliminary ruling on the proportionality of the Netherlands' collection, registration, and retention of biometric data from Turkish nationals in a central filing system. The case examined whether this practice, aimed at preventing identity fraud, complied with the right to private life and data protection under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Case brief
Read from the judgment on 2026-09-19. Every holding carries a short verbatim quote from that text.
- Decided by
- Court of Justice of the European Union
- Parties
- Staatssecretaris van Justitie en Veiligheid v. A and Others
- Decision date
- October 3, 2019
- Remedy
- The Court ruled that the national requirement to collect, record, and retain biometric data of third-country nationals in a central filing system is justified by the objective of preventing and combating identity and document fraud.
- Appeal
- Appeal status not stated
Key holdings
Conditioning a temporary residence permit on collecting and retaining biometric data in a central filing system constitutes a new restriction under Decision No 1/80.
“conditional upon the collection, recording and retention of their biometric data in a central filing system constitutes a ‘new restriction’ within the meaning of that provision.” — paragraph 70
The national restriction on processing biometric data is justified by the overriding public interest objective of preventing and combating identity and document fraud.
“Such a restriction is, however, justified by the objective of preventing and combating identity and document fraud.” — paragraph 70
In plain English
In 2013 and 2014, Turkish nationals applied for temporary residence permits in the Netherlands. The State Secretary for Justice and Security granted the applications on condition that the applicants provide biometric data, specifically a facial image and 10 fingerprints, to be stored in a central filing system. The applicants challenged this requirement in court. A regional court ruled in their favor, finding that collecting and retaining biometric data constituted an impermissible restriction under European Union association agreements with Turkey. The State Secretary appealed to the Raad van State, which referred questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union. In its judgment of 3 October 2019 in Case C-70/18, the Court found that requiring third-country nationals staying longer than 90 days to submit biometric data creates a new restriction. However, the Court ruled that the requirement is justified by the public interest objective of preventing and combating identity and document fraud. The Court held that retaining 10 fingerprints and a facial image for five years after an applicant departs or is rejected does not go beyond what is necessary to achieve this objective and respects fundamental privacy rights.
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