Court of Justice 11 December 2025, C-468/24 (Opinion of Advocate General Biondi delivered on 11 December 2025.)

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Advocate General Biondi opines that an electricity network does not constitute an 'electronic communications network' under Directive 2002/58/EC where it is not public and the smart meter is not consumer-owned. The Opinion further suggests that Article 13 of the GDPR and the Charter of Fundamental Rights do not preclude national legislation allowing system operators to retrieve data in 'justified individual cases' without real-time visibility for the customer, provided the consumer is informed in advance of this specific purpose. Consequently, the Advocate General recommends that the Court find the Austrian regulatory framework for smart meter data management compatible with Union law under the specified conditions.AI