Remarks and Considerations on the CJEU Decision on Biometric Passports

Abstract

Biometric passports, namely passports including a storage medium that contains the facial image and two fingerprints of their owner, became mandatory when Regulation (EC) 2252/2004 entered into force. In the case C-291/12, the Court of Justice of the European Union was asked to examine whether biometric passports constitute a possible infringement of the fundamental right to the protection of personal data. This chapter aims at analyzing the aforementioned Judgment of the CJEU, focusing in particular on the application of the proportionality principle. The authors attempt to formulate some additional remarks and considerations on the critical matters of that case, and to this end, they especially focus on the processing of multiple biometric elements, the existence of alternative and less intrusive means, as well as the security of the biometric passports.