The Willems judgment: CJEU’s missed chance to rein in biometric data usage

In her fourth post on data retention and border controls, Diana Dimitrova from KU Leuven looks at the Court of Justice of the European Union’s (CJEU) judgment in the Willems case. Diana discusses the Court’s reasoning on the applicability of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (CFREU) to the further usage of the biometrics (facial and fingerprint images) collected and stored by Member States on the chip of EU biometric passports. She also argues why more safeguards for their use are necessary.