Germany

[DE] Mediation Committee Agrees on TKEntschNeuOG

IRIS 2009-5:1/20

Sebastian Schweda

Institute of European Media Law (EMR), Saarbrücken/Brussels

The Vermittlungsausschuss (Mediation Committee - VA) of the Bundestag and Bundesrat (lower and upper houses of parliament respectively) has reached an agreement on the Gesetz zur Neuordnung der Entschädigung von TK-Unternehmen für Dienste im Rahmen der Strafverfolgung (Act on the reform of compensation for telecommunications companies providing assistance with criminal prosecutions - TKEntschNeuOG).

The Bundesrat had convened the VA (see IRIS 2009-2: 11) because it thought some of the fixed amounts laid down in the draft Act to compensate telecommunications companies for surveillance measures were too high. In its recommendation, the VA reached a compromise on the size of the payments. The payments will also be graded more closely in line with the duration of surveillance operations: the full monthly rate for a surveillance measure will not, as previously, be paid for every month that is started, but only when the operation lasts for more than two weeks. Furthermore, a more detailed differentiation between connection types will be carried out: for example, companies will receive more compensation for surveillance of a DSL or ISDN connection than an analogue one.

However, the general reduction of compensation for information about traffic data stored for ID purposes from EUR 30 to EUR 20 was rejected.