In the name of analogy: Judicial copy-pasting and competence creep in the connection data case law

At the European Court of Justice, analogy reasoning often takes a specific form with the copy-pasting of numerous citations taken from the Court’s earlier case law. This article analyses the practice of copy-pasting in the contested case law on connection data. After offering a fresh look at the judgment in Digital Rights Ireland, it examines how the successive copy-pasting of that former case into Tele2 Sverige and its progeny has changed the parameters of the legal analysis of connection data legislation together with the competences of the Union, and in the Union for that matter. It is argued that, despite its advantages, judicial copy-pasting carried out in the name of analogy should be handled with utmost care in view of its potential consequences at constitutional level.