EU court rules: operators must provide location data to ‘112’ services, even without SIM
The European Union‘s top court ruled on Thursday that mobile phone operators must hand over data and enable the localization of calls made to the international emergency number 112. 112 service eu
Police, ambulance and fire services must also be able to track the physical location of a caller who has dialed 112 regardless of whether the phone has a SIM card.
The judges ruled that where technically possible, the transmitted information must be sufficient to “reliably and accurately” locate the person calling.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg made the decision to impose a tracking system of mobile networks after a lawsuit was filed by the family of a teenage girl in Lithuania who was violently raped and murdered.
In September 2013, the 17-year-old had made 10 desperate calls to 112 begging for help but her number did not show in the call answering center, preventing her from being located.
Consequently, the child was raped and burnt alive in the trunk of a car after she was kidnapped in the Lithuanian city of Panevezys.
The girl’s family later sued the Lithuanian state for failing to implement EU rules under which member states must ensure that the caller’s location is transmitted, free of charge, with any 112 calls. The case was then taken to the ECJ.
It still remains unclear whether the girl’s phone contained a SIM card or whether there were other reasons that prevented her call from being tracked. If there is a direct causal link between Lithuania’s failure to implement the EU law and any harm incurred as a result, Lithuania can be held liable.
The case has now been reverted to Lithuanian courts for the final verdict. European Union
The EU Court holds that the Universal Service Directive requires the Member
States, subject to technical feasibility, to ensure that the undertakings concerned make caller location information available free of charge to the authority handling emergency calls to ‘112’ as soon as the call reaches that authority, including in cases where the call is made from a mobile telephone which is not fitted with a SIM card.
Consequently, where, in accordance with the domestic law of a Member State, the existence of an indirect causal link between the unlawful act committed by the national authorities and the damage sustained by an individual is regarded as sufficient to render the State liable, such an indirect causal link between a breach of EU law attributable to that Member State and the damage sustained by an individual must also be regarded as sufficient for the purposes of rendering that Member State liable for that breach of EU law. 112 service eu
