Recording job interviews in Luxembourg: the 1982 privacy law, the 2005 communications law and the GDPR

Recording a job interview with a candidate in Luxembourg requires the candidate's consent. Article 2 of the law of August 11, 1982 on the protection of private life punishes recording "words spoken in private by a person, without that person's consent" with eight days to one year in prison and/or a fine, though consent is presumed for a recording made at a meeting in the sight and knowledge of its participants. Article 4 of the law of May 30, 2005 bars anyone other than the user concerned from listening to or storing communications without that user's consent. The GDPR governs the recording and transcript, and the regulator is the National Commission for Data Protection (CNPD). This is the position as of November 2026.

This page adds Luxembourg to our country series alongside its neighbors Belgium and France. It is for recruiters, agency consultants and hiring managers who interview candidates located in Luxembourg by video or phone, including from the US and from the neighboring countries many Luxembourg employees commute from.

Luxembourg's rules at a glance

Is it legal to record a job interview in Luxembourg?

Yes, with consent. The law of August 11, 1982 opens with "everyone has the right to respect for their private life" (Article 1). Article 2 punishes, with eight days to one year in prison and a fine, or either, anyone who "deliberately infringed the intimacy of another's private life" by "listening to or having listened to, recording or having recorded, transmitting or having transmitted, by means of any device, words spoken in private by a person, without that person's consent."

The same article adds: "When the acts set out in this article were carried out during a meeting in the sight and knowledge of its participants, their consent is presumed." An interview where everyone can see that the call is being recorded may fit that presumption, but we found no official text applying it to video calls, and the presumption does nothing for your GDPR duties. Article 4 extends the penalties to anyone who, without consent, knowingly keeps, discloses or uses "any recording or document obtained" through those acts, and Article 11 orders such recordings destroyed. Ask for an explicit yes before you record, and never record a candidate you have not told.

What does the 2005 electronic communications law add?

Article 4(2) of the law of May 30, 2005 reads, in the CNPD's unofficial English translation: "No person other than the user concerned may listen to, tap or store communications or the traffic data relating thereto, or engage in any other kinds of interception or surveillance thereof, without the consent of the user concerned." Breaching it carries eight days to one year in prison and/or a fine of 251 to 125,000 euros (Article 4(4)).

Article 4(3)(d) carves out recordings made "in the context of lawful professional practices" to provide evidence of a commercial transaction or other commercial communication, provided the parties are told in advance that recordings may be made, why, and how long they are kept, and the recordings are erased once the purpose is achieved. That exception was written for call centers and trading lines; a job interview is not obviously a commercial communication, so rely on consent instead.

Which GDPR rules apply to the recording and transcript?

A recording or transcript is personal data, so the GDPR applies in full, supervised in Luxembourg by the CNPD under the law of August 1, 2018. You need an Article 6 basis, usually steps taken at the candidate's request before a contract or legitimate interests (see legitimate interest in recruitment); the 1982 and 2005 laws still make the candidate's consent to the recording itself the safe course. Give the Article 13 information when the recording starts, keep the data minimal, set a retention limit under Article 5(1)(e), and keep a person in any decision, because Article 22 restricts decisions based solely on automated processing.

Candidates may ask for a copy under Article 15. Article 12(3) requires an answer "without undue delay and in any event within one month of receipt," extendable by two further months "where necessary, taking into account the complexity and number of the requests," with the candidate told within the first month. We found no Luxembourg rule fixing a retention period for candidate recordings, so tie yours to the hiring decision and any dispute window, and delete audio before notes.

What about recording your own recruiters?

Candidates are not employees, but your interviewers are, and a recording or call-analytics tool captures them too. According to the CNPD's guidance on Article L.261-1 of the Labour Code, processing employees' data for monitoring purposes requires prior collective information to the staff representatives, in addition to individual GDPR information, covering the purpose, how the system works, the retention period or criteria, and a formal commitment not to use the data for any other purpose. Within 15 days of that information, the staff delegation, or failing that the employees concerned, may ask the CNPD for a prior opinion, which it must give within one month; the request suspends the project. Unless a law requires the monitoring, the co-decision rules of Articles L.211-8 and L.414-9 apply where it serves health and safety, production or performance control that is the only way to determine exact pay, or flexible working hours. Breaching Article L.261-1 is a criminal offense punishable by eight days to one year in prison and/or a fine of 251 to 125,000 euros (Article L.261-2).

What if you interview a candidate in Luxembourg from the US?

An employer or agency established in the EU is covered by the GDPR under Article 3(1); a US company with no EU establishment is covered only where Article 3(2) applies. The 1982 law protects the candidate's words wherever the recorder sits, and your own state's law governs your side of the call; see two-party consent states. A recording or transcript sent to a US vendor needs a transfer basis under Chapter V of the GDPR, such as the Commission's adequacy decision for the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (certified recipients only) or standard contractual clauses.

Can you use AI note takers or transcription?

Yes, with the candidate's agreement, notice before you start, a documented legal basis, a processor contract under Article 28 GDPR, a transfer basis for any vendor outside the EU, and short retention. Ask the vendor where it stores audio and transcripts, how long it keeps them, and whether it trains models on your interviews, which would be a new purpose. A tool that scores or ranks candidates is likely to be a high-risk system under the EU AI Act, and if your recruiters' own calls are analyzed, the Labour Code rules above apply. Interview Signal, for example, captures audio on the interviewer's own computer with no bot joining the call, shows a read-aloud consent line with a one-click pause, and does not retain audio after transcription; the transcript is still personal data under the rules above.

A consent line for interviews in Luxembourg

Avant de commencer : j'aimerais [enregistrer notre entretien /
utiliser un logiciel qui transcrit notre conversation] afin de noter
fidèlement vos réponses. [L'enregistrement / La transcription] servira
uniquement à ce recrutement, ne sera communiqué(e) qu'[au client / au
responsable du recrutement], sera hébergé(e) par [prestataire, pays]
et sera supprimé(e) [délai] après la décision. Êtes-vous d'accord ?
Vous pouvez refuser ou me demander d'arrêter à tout moment, sans
aucune incidence sur votre candidature.

(Before we start: I'd like to [record our interview / use software
that transcribes our conversation] so I capture your answers
accurately. The [recording / transcript] will be used only for this
recruitment, shared only with [the client / the hiring manager],
hosted by [vendor, country] and deleted [period] after the decision.
Do you agree? You can refuse or ask me to stop at any time, with no
effect on your application.)

Offer the line in German or Luxembourgish if that suits the candidate, and put the Article 13 details in the invitation and your candidate privacy notice. More wording is in the interview recording consent script.

Checklist before you record interviews in Luxembourg

• Candidate told before recording or live transcription starts, asked, and the answer noted.
• Article 6 basis documented; Article 13 notice in the invitation, naming any client who receives the recording.
• Only calls you take part in are recorded; nothing covert, nothing kept or shared without consent.
• Staff representatives informed before recruiters' calls are recorded or analyzed (Article L.261-1).
• Access requests answered within one month; retention period set and followed.
• US vendors certified under the Data Privacy Framework or covered by standard contractual clauses.