Analyzing of legitimate interest under the general data protection regulation in the light of the court of justice of the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights Case Law

Legitimate interest is one of the most intriguing and ambiguous subjects under data protection law. It is difficult to define as a notion and its repercussions in practice cannot be easily anticipated. The goal of the present thesis is to investigate whether legitimate interest clause under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) provides an effective protection. To answer this question, first, circumstances that created the GDPR and the reasons why it was needed are explained from the legitimate interest perspective. Second, the consequences of the lack of legal certainty caused by the legitimate interest clause are pointed out. Third, benchmarks are drawn up for an optimum balance testing by specifying which elements should be considered in a legitimate interest review one by one. Since the case law of both CJEU and ECtHR play a critical role in ensuring legal certainty, related landmark cases are examined in a comparative way. Lastly, a legal projection of what awaits the legitimate interest in the future is demonstrated with the help of the Article 29 Working Party opinions, national data protection authorities' decisions and international guidelines and recommendations.