In a landmark ruling, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)—Europe’s highest court to take up cases affecting the privacy rights of EU citizens—ruled that some aspects of the UK’s DNA database violated EU law.  Specifically, on December 4, the ECHR issued its decision, S. and Marper v. The United Kingdom (Applications 30562/04, 30566/04), holding that the UK DNA database violated the EU’s Convention for the Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (the “Convention”) in retaining the DNA samples of individuals who had been acquitted of (or arrested and not charged with) any crime.