Case Summary
The General Court of the EU found that the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency (REA) did not properly evaluate several information access requests submitted by digital rights activist and Member of the European Parliament Patrick Breyer. Mr. Breyer requested access to documents related to an EU-funded research project aimed at developing an “artificial intelligence” based “video lie detector” for use on travelers to the EU to determine if they were lying during questioning. The REA denied these requests, citing concerns that releasing the information would harm the commercial interests of the companies involved in the project. The General Court determined that the potential damage to the commercial interests of these companies outweighed the public interest in disclosing the information, as the documents pertained to the early stages of the research. The Court concluded that the public interest in the disclosure of information existed only after the completion of the innovations and research.
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Further notes on contested technology
- → AI Technology
- → The technology is only tested
Author of the case note
