14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has lost an appeal in Belgium in a case that required the software giant to provide law enforcement with access to the data belonging to a suspect in a criminal investigation.
The court originally required Microsoft to share user data from messages and calls, but the company refused to comply, claiming that it has no legal obligation to do so given that it’s not a telecom operator. Belgium laws require telecom operators to provide access to data belonging to users involved in criminal investigations.
Today, an appeals court judge in Antwerp ruled that Microsoft must be considered a telecom operator and be treated as such, which means that logs and access to stored messages need to be provided to law enforcement to help with the investigation, Reuters reports.
Similar case in the US
On the other hand, Microsoft also said that its Luxembourg-based division might block the request and refuse to share the data, but the judge dismissed the claims and said the data is located in Belgium. Luxembourg is the home country of Skype and the location of its own servers.
The Judge also upheld the $36,000 fine for Microsoft and asked the company to comply as soon as possible. In return, the software giant says it’s already considering its legal options, clearly suggesting that it won’t provide access to user data and it wants to fight the ruling in higher courts.
Microsoft is involved in a similar legal dispute in the United States as well, as the government wants the company to provide access to user data that’s stored overseas. Microsoft, on the other hand, says a search order should only cover servers located in each country and cannot apply to those based overseas, thus refusing to comply with the request and share logs that are said to be stored on Irish servers.
This particular dispute has already reached the US Supreme Court, with Microsoft not willing to share user data in this case either.