National Report: Czech Republic
Radim Polčák, František Kasl, and Jakub Míšek
1 General Data Protection Framework
1.1 Legislation and Case-Law
Protection of personal data is considered a specific fundamental right. It is explicitly
recognized by Art. 10(3) of the Constitutional Act No. 2/1993 Sb., the Charter of
Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which reads as follows: “Everyone has the right
to be protected from unauthorized gathering, public revelation, or other misuse of
their personal data.”
The Czech Republic is an EU member-state which means that the main statute for
protection of personal data is Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural
persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of
such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation—
GDPR).
Despite being self-executing, the GDPR requires, in some areas, national legislative implementation in a similar manner as if it was merely a directive. In addition,
the GDPR is accompanied by the Directive (EU) 2016/680 on the protection of
natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of
criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of
such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. That Directive is not directly applicable and needs to be harmonised into the Czech law.
The Czech transposition of current EU personal data protection framework
should be based on a special act (Personal Data Processing Act) that should mainly
include provisions for processing of personal data for public interest and an
R. Polčák (*) · F. Kasl · J. Míšek
Masaryk University, Faculty of Law, Institute of Law and Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: radim.polcak@law.muni.cz
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
D. Moura Vicente, S. de Vasconcelos Casimiro (eds.), Data Protection in the
Internet, Ius Comparatum – Global Studies in Comparative Law 38,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28049-9_5
115
Radim Polčák, František Kasl, and Jakub Míšek
1 General Data Protection Framework
1.1 Legislation and Case-Law
Protection of personal data is considered a specific fundamental right. It is explicitly
recognized by Art. 10(3) of the Constitutional Act No. 2/1993 Sb., the Charter of
Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which reads as follows: “Everyone has the right
to be protected from unauthorized gathering, public revelation, or other misuse of
their personal data.”
The Czech Republic is an EU member-state which means that the main statute for
protection of personal data is Regulation (EU) 2016/679 on the protection of natural
persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of
such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation—
GDPR).
Despite being self-executing, the GDPR requires, in some areas, national legislative implementation in a similar manner as if it was merely a directive. In addition,
the GDPR is accompanied by the Directive (EU) 2016/680 on the protection of
natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of
criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of
such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. That Directive is not directly applicable and needs to be harmonised into the Czech law.
The Czech transposition of current EU personal data protection framework
should be based on a special act (Personal Data Processing Act) that should mainly
include provisions for processing of personal data for public interest and an
R. Polčák (*) · F. Kasl · J. Míšek
Masaryk University, Faculty of Law, Institute of Law and Technology, Brno, Czech Republic
e-mail: radim.polcak@law.muni.cz
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
D. Moura Vicente, S. de Vasconcelos Casimiro (eds.), Data Protection in the
Internet, Ius Comparatum – Global Studies in Comparative Law 38,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-28049-9_5
115