Court case VerfGH Lv 15/20 – Court Ruling (Germany, 2020)

In the Saarland, Art. 2 § 3 CP-VO regulated contact tracing. This tracing serves to interrupt chains of infection. The aim is to find out who may have had close contact with an infected person so that he/she can be placed in (self-)quarantine and tested in order to avoid infecting other people unintentionally. Those responsible for catering, cultural facilities and events, indoor playgrounds, church services and funerals, sports and other related events according to Art. 2 § 6 CP-VO, hotels and other accommodation providers as well as prostitution businesses are obliged to do to keep the information: - First name and surname, - Place of residence - Accessibility and - the arrival time of one representative of each household present They must be handed over to the health authorities on request. It is also provided that these data are to be deleted within one month. The standard does not lay down any requirements for the organisation of the collection of contact data. In the field of gastronomy, in particular, this often leads to the fact that subsequent guests can recognise and remember who has visited the company before them and how they can be reached via telephone number, e-mail address or postal address. This is a significant interference in the right to data protection. By recording, storing and possibly also passing on address and contact data, citizens - holders of fundamental rights - could be indirectly deterred from attending certain events or places. Indeed, the idea can be frightening if it is precisely documented and, if necessary, the state is informed from when to when one has visited which restaurant, political, religious or cultural event. According to the Constitutional Court of the Saarland, such a far-reaching, serious interference with the fundamental right to data protection cannot be decided by government decree. A parliamentary law is also necessary, because it is not (any longer) a short-term emergency situation, but a regulation which i