[...]

C. Applicability of Art 8 of the Convention

[...]

71. The Court considers that the notion of „private life“ may include professional activities (see Fernández Martínez v. Spain [GC], no. 56030/07, § 110, ECHR 2014 (extracts), and Oleksandr Volkov v. Ukraine, no. 21722/11, §§ 165-66, ECHR 2013), or activities taking place in a public context (see Von Hannover v. Germany (no. 2) [GC], nos. 40660/08 and 60641/08, § 95, ECHR 2012). [...]

72. Furthermore, as regards the notion of „correspondence“, it should be noted that in the wording of Art 8 this word is not qualified by any adjective, unlike the term „life“. And indeed, the Court has already held that, in the context of correspondence by means of telephone calls, no such qualification is to be made. In a number of cases relating to correspondence with a lawyer, it has not even envisaged the possibility that Art 8 might be inapplicable on the ground that the correspondence was of a professional nature (see Niemietz, cited above, § 32, with further references). Furthermore, it has held that telephone conversations are covered by the notions of „private life“ and „correspondence“ within the meaning of Art 8 (see Roman Zakharov v. Russia [GC], no. 47143/06, § 173, ECHR 2015). In principle, this is also true where telephone calls are made from or received on business premises (see Halford, cited above, § 44, and Amann v. Switzerland [GC], no. 27798/95, § 44, ECHR 2000 II). The same applies to emails sent from the workplace, which enjoy similar protection under Art 8, as does information derived from the monitoring of a person‘s internet use (see Copland, cited above, § 41 in fine).

[...]

81. In the light of all the above considerations, the Court concludes that the applicant‘s communications in the workplace were covered by the concepts of „private life“ and „correspondence“. Accordingly, in the circumstances of the present case, Art 8 of the Convention is applicable.

D. Compliance with Art 8 of the Convention

[...]

2. The Court‘s assessment

(a) Whether the case concerns a negative or a positive obligation

[...]

109. In the present case the Court observes that the measure complained of by the applicant, namely the monitoring of Yahoo Messenger communications, which resulted in disciplinary proceedings against him followed by his dismissal for infringing his employer‘s internal regulations prohibiting the personal use of company resources, was not taken by a State authority but by a private commercial company. The monitoring of the applicant‘s communications and the inspection of their content by his employer in order to justify his dismissal cannot therefore be regarded as „interference“ with his right by a State authority.

110. Nevertheless, the Court notes that the measure taken by the employer was accepted by the national courts. It is true that the monitoring of the applicant‘s communications was not the result of direct intervention by the national authorities; however, their responsibility would be engaged if the facts complained of stemmed from a failure on their part to secure to the applicant the enjoyment of a right enshrined in Art 8 of the Convention (see, mutatis mutandis, Obst v. Germany, no. 425/03, §§ 40 and 43, 23 September 2010, and Schüth v. Germany, no. 1620/03, §§ 54 and 57, ECHR 2010).

[...]

(b) General principles applicable to the assessment of the State‘s positive obligation to ensure respect for private life and correspondence in an employment context

[...]

115. The Court observes that it has held that in certain circumstances, the State‘s positive obligations under Art 8 of the Convention are not adequately fulfilled unless it secures respect for private life in the relations between individuals by setting up a legislative framework taking into consideration the various interests to be protected in a particular context (see X and Y v. the Netherlands, cited above, §§ 23, 24 and 27, and M.C. v. Bulgaria, no. 39272/98, § 150, ECHR 2003 XII, both concerning sexual assaults of minors; see also K.U. v. Finland, no. 2872/02, §§ 43 and 49, ECHR 2008, concerning an advertisement of a sexual nature placed on an internet dating site in the name of a minor; Söderman, cited above, § 85, concerning the effec-215tiveness of remedies in respect of an alleged violation of personal integrity committed by a close relative; and Codarcea v. Romania, no. 31675/04, §§ 102-04, 2 June 2009, concerning medical negligence).

116. The Court accepts that protective measures are not only to be found in labour law, but also in civil and criminal law. As far as labour law is concerned, it must ascertain whether in the present case the respondent State was required to set up a legislative framework to protect the applicant‘s right to respect for his private life and correspondence in the context of his professional relationship with a private employer.

[...]

120. Nevertheless, the discretion enjoyed by States in this field cannot be unlimited. The domestic authorities should ensure that the introduction by an employer of measures to monitor correspondence and other communications, irrespective of the extent and duration of such measures, is accompanied by adequate and sufficient safeguards against abuse (see, mutatis mutandis, Klass and Others v. Germany, 6 September 1978, § 50, Series A no. 28, and Roman Zakharov, cited above, §§ 232-34).

121. The Court is aware of the rapid developments in this area. Nevertheless, it considers that proportionality and procedural guarantees against arbitrariness are essential. In this context, the domestic authorities should treat the following factors as relevant:

(i) whether the employee has been notified of the possibility that the employer might take measures to monitor correspondence and other communications, and of the implementation of such measures. While in practice employees may be notified in various ways depending on the particular factual circumstances of each case, the Court considers that for the measures to be deemed compatible with the requirements of Art 8 of the Convention, the notification should normally be clear about the nature of the monitoring and be given in advance;

(ii) the extent of the monitoring by the employer and the degree of intrusion into the employee‘s privacy. In this regard, a distinction should be made between monitoring of the flow of communications and of their content. Whether all communications or only part of them have been monitored should also be taken into account, as should the question whether the monitoring was limited in time and the number of people who had access to the results (see Köpke, cited above). The same applies to the spatial limits to the monitoring;

(iii) whether the employer has provided legitimate reasons to justify monitoring the communications and accessing their actual content (see §§ 38, 43 and 45 above for an overview of international and European law in this area). Since monitoring of the content of communications is by nature a distinctly more invasive method, it requires weightier justification;

(iv) whether it would have been possible to establish a monitoring system based on less intrusive methods and measures than directly accessing the content of the employee‘s communications. In this connection, there should be an assessment in the light of the particular circumstances of each case of whether the aim pursued by the employer could have been achieved without directly accessing the full contents of the employee‘s communications;

(v) the consequences of the monitoring for the employee subjected to it (see, mutatis mutandis, the similar criterion applied in the assessment of the proportionality of an interference with the exercise of freedom of expression as protected by Art 10 of the Convention in Axel Springer AG v. Germany [GC], no. 39954/08, § 95, 7 February 2012, with further references); and the use made by the employer of the results of the monitoring operation, in particular whether the results were used to achieve the declared aim of the measure (see Köpke, cited above);

(vi) whether the employee had been provided with adequate safeguards, especially when the employer‘s monitoring operations were of an intrusive nature. Such safeguards should in particular ensure that the employer cannot access the actual content of the communications concerned unless the employee has been notified in advance of that eventuality.

In this context, it is worth reiterating that in order to be fruitful, labour relations must be based on mutual trust (see Palomo Sánchez and Others, cited above, § 76).

122. Lastly, the domestic authorities should ensure that an employee whose communications have been monitored has access to a remedy before a judicial body with jurisdiction to determine, at least in substance, how the criteria outlined above were observed and whether the impugned measures were lawful (see Obst, cited above, § 45, and Köpke, cited above).

[...]

(c) Application of the above general principles in the present case

[...]

127. It therefore considers that the complaint before it concerns the applicant‘s dismissal based on the monitoring carried out by his employer. More specifically, it must ascertain in the present case whether the national authorities performed a balancing exercise, in accordance with the requirements of Art 8 of the Convention, between the applicant‘s right to respect for his private life and correspondence and the employer‘s interests. Its task is therefore to determine whether, in the light of all the circumstances of the case, the competent national authorities struck a fair balance between the competing interests at stake when accepting the monitoring measures to which the applicant was subjected (see, mutatis mutandis, Palomo Sánchez and Others, cited above, § 62). It acknowledges that the employer has a legitimate interest in ensuring the smooth running of the company, and that this can be done by establishing mechanisms for checking that its employees are performing their professional duties adequately and with the necessary diligence.

[...]216140. That being so, it appears that the domestic courts failed to determine, in particular, whether the applicant had received prior notice from his employer of the possibility that his communications on Yahoo Messenger might be monitored; nor did they have regard either to the fact that he had not been informed of the nature or the extent of the monitoring, or to the degree of intrusion into his private life and correspondence. In addition, they failed to determine, firstly, the specific reasons justifying the introduction of the monitoring measures; secondly, whether the employer could have used measures entailing less intrusion into the applicant‘s private life and correspondence; and thirdly, whether the communications might have been accessed without his knowledge (see §§ 120 and 121 above).

141. Having regard to all the above considerations, and notwithstanding the respondent State‘s margin of appreciation, the Court considers that the domestic authorities did not afford adequate protection of the applicant‘s right to respect for his private life and correspondence and that they consequently failed to strike a fair balance between the interests at stake. There has therefore been a violation of Art 8 of the Convention. [...]