CJEU case C‑371/24 Comdribus – CJEU Judgment (France, 2026)

In 2020, law enforcement officers arrested several people from a climate protest. One of the individuals detained (the data subject) provided their identity, but refused to be fingerprinted and photographed, as well as to provide the code to their phone (or unlock it themselves). The data subject was later accused before the Paris Criminal Court of unlawfully organising a protest, as well as refusing to provide their data for identification and investigation purposes in accordance with national lawArticle 55-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The court found them guilty of not providing their biometric data and fined the data subject €300. Both the data subject and Public Prosecutor appealed the decision to the Paris Court of Appeal. The court requested a preliminary ruling from the CJEU, regarding the compatibility of national law with provisions of the Law Enforcement Directive (LED), taking into consideration previous case lawSee Ministerstvo na vatreshnite raboti (Recording of biometric and genetic data by the police) (C‑205/21, EU:C:2023:49, paragraph 135). Specifically, the court had questions regarding the systematic processing of biometric data of a data subject reasonably suspected of having committed or attempted to commit an offense in the context of an investigation, when the data subject has not necessarily been accused of committing an offense. The court referred the following questions: 1. Does the Law Enforcement Directive 2016/680 preclude national legislation from systematically processing identification data from data subjects who are suspected of having committed or attempted to commit an offense? 2. Does the Law Enforcement Directive 2016/680 require national legislation to oblige a competent authority to sufficiently explain why it is strictly necessary to process this data on an individual basis? 3. Does the Law Enforcement Directive 2016/680 preclude national legislation from allowing data subjects to be prosecuted on the basis of refusing