The regulation from the Interior Ministry and the State Agency for Information Technologies and Communications (SAITC), which implements the EU data-retention directive, was unconstitutional and should at the very least be changed, if not scrapped all together, Dnevnik daily quoted unnamed members of Parliament (MPs) of National Movement for Stability and Progress (NMSP) as saying.

NMSP MPs were not planning to file a complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) yet, wanting to hear first Interior Minister Roumen Petkov and SAITC head Plamen Vachkov. The regulation would not come into force until next year anyway, so there would be enough time to appeal and if no one else filed a complaint, the NMSP would, MPs said.

The NMSP announcement came several days after non-governmental organisations had stated their intention to appeal the regulations with the SAC.

Under the regulation, passed on January 7 and published in the State Gazette on January 31, Internet service providers (ISPs) and mobile phone operators would have to collect traffic data on their customers and would be required to provide the data to the police and the judiciary when asked. Access to the collected data does not require a court decision, a written request from the police is sufficient. Operators would be required to keep secret who has requested what information.

According to the NMSP, the regulation was unconstitutional and would not hold up in court. All cases of encroachment on individual sanctity have to be written down in law, not in a regulation, according to NMSP. Parliament was responsible for not having integrated the data-retention into the electronic communications law, they said.

As the information collected through the current implementation of the data-retention directive would not be admissible as court evidence, it created an opportunity for criminal abuse of personal information, the NMSP MPs said.

In early February, a protest was held in Sofia against the introduction of the regulation and new protests were planned for February 28 under the title "We don't want full control."
According to the organisers of the protests, the Opensource Bulgaria and Digital Freedom organisations, the current regulation was more strict than the EU directive required.