EU court rules against Bulgarian biometric data collection

 

The EU’s top court ruled that the Bulgarian police may not collect DNA and fingerprints unnecessarily, in a judgement on Thursday.

The Court of the European Union (CJEU) handed down its judgement in a case stemming from the Bulgarian police's mass collection of biometric data from suspects.

The Luxembourg-based court ruled that the Bulgarian interior ministry must prove that there is an "absolute necessity" for collecting biometric data in every case.

The case, referred to the CJEU by Sofia City Court (SHC) judge Ivo Hinov, relates to a Bulgarian woman accused of tax crimes who had alleged the forced collection of her biometric data by the police. (...)