A Spanish telecoms provider has been taken to court, by a non-profit group for not handing over details of people suspected of file sharing over mobile phones.

Telefonica, Spain's largest Internet provider, was taken to court by Promusicae, a non-profit group of music producers, when they refused to hand over names and addresses.

However Juliane Kokott, Advocate General to the European Court of Justice, said that while it was necessary for such details to be revealed in criminal prosecutions, EU law does not compel telecom companies to make the same disclosures in civil cases. Siting that EU law only allows them to share personal data for criminal prosecutions or matters of public security.