On 11 November 2020, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered its judgment in case C-61/19 (Orange Romania) on the conditions that must be fulfilled in order for an indication of wishes to be regarded as specific, informed, and freely given.
In essence, the CJEU stated that a contract for the provision of telecommunications services which contains a clause stating that the data subject has been informed of, and has consented to, the collection and storage of a copy of his or her identity document for identification purposes is not such as to demonstrate that the respective person has validly given his or her consent to that collection and storage, where
- the box referring to that clause has been ticked by the data controller before the contract was signed, or where
- the terms of that contract are capable of misleading the data subject as to the possibility of concluding the contract in question even if he or she refuses to consent to the processing of his or her data, or where
- the freedom to choose to object to that collection and storage is unduly affected by that controller in requiring that the data subject, in order to refuse consent, must complete an additional form setting out that refusal.
The press release is available here, and the judgment is available here.
