The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has made strict guidelines for the location of the EU member states: According to a judgment of the Court of Justice in the event of a 112 emergency call, telecommunications companies must in each case immediately and free of charge provide information about the location of the caller. That is true even if the calls came from mobile phones without a SIM card, the Luxembourg judges declared on Thursday (Case C-417/18). The EU states would have to ensure the implementation of this regulation.
Background is a case from Lithuania: In a violent crime, a 17-year-old was kidnapped in a suburb, rape and burned alive in the trunk of a car according to the ECJ.
While she was locked up in the trunk, she has called with a mobile phone under the Europe-wide standardized emergency number 112 a good dozen times for help, they say. The Lithuanian emergency center but no location data were transmitted. It could not be determined if the phone had a sim card and why the number was not displayed.
Members of the 17-year-olds sued the state of Lithuania for damages. They argued that the country had failed to properly implement the EU Directive on location for calls under the Europe-wide emergency number 112. An administrative court in Vilnius presented the case to the ECJ.
The ECJ granted states "certain discretion"
The top EU judges now emphasized that according to the relevant EU directive, the location data would have to be transmitted on all calls under the 112 number - emergency calls from mobile phones without a SIM card are not excluded from this. Depending on the country and the particular mobile network, the data could be of different accuracy. In any case, the police, fire brigade and ambulance must be able to act on the information.
In Germany, according to the Federal Network Agency, it is mandatory that the location is transmitted as a geographical coordinate. For mobile calls, the area of the radio cell in which the connection was established can therefore also be specified.
Emergency calls from mobile phones without a SIM card are not allowed, explained the authority. This provision was adopted in 2009 to address abuse of the emergency number. Previously, the number had been used to demonstrate the functionality of used equipment. Whether the ECJ decision requires action in Germany must be examined.
The judicial system in Lithuania now has to decide on the specific litigation on which the ECJ ruling is based.
