Dutch Supreme Court rules in favor of the rule of (EU) law
- Joint Defense Team
- Apr 16
- 2 min read
Updated: Apr 17
On Tuesday, 14 April 2026, the Supreme Court gave an important ruling in a case of Mr. Reisinger, co-founder of our team. The Supreme Court revisits its previous case law by taking over the interpretation of EU law of the Court of Justice of the EU (in the EncroChat ruling of 30 April 2024). This finally is favoring the rights of the individuals (allegedly) using encrypted messaging systems, whose communications are intercepted by foreign authorities.
The rule is now clear: when those foreign authorities are intercepting telecommunications on its own initiative, it has to notify the country in which the address of the intercepted telecommunications is used and the competent authority of that country has to authorize that interception. (Art. 31 EIO Directive)
The EncroChat case in the Netherlands is unique insofar as there was an authorization of the Dutch competent authority before the interception started. However, this is not the case in SkyECC (in the Netherlands) and this is not the case for EncroChat, ANOM and SkyECC in all other EU countries! In addition, this ruling makes it possible to attack the authorization of the Dutch judge in the Netherlands, which wasn’t possible before either…
In sum, the case of this suspect is not overthrown, although his sentence was reduced, this ruling has two important implications. First, the legal importance is that EU law really matters, also in criminal cases. Secondly and more practically, individuals involved in cases in which the evidence is based solely or decisively on intercepted communications from encrypted messaging systems, can contest the legality to domestic standards in domestic criminal cases!
The Joint Defense Team views this ruling as a definitive shift in European jurisprudence, providing the necessary legal leverage to contest the admissibility of intercepted communications in complex EncroChat, ANOM and SkyECC litigation.
