Legal Insights

In a decision dated September 16, 2020, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) ruled on the conformity of California law with French international procedural public policy. By the combined application of several California procedural rules, a French defendant had been deprived of a remedy. The Cour de Cassation, asked to rule in the context of the procedure for the recognition and enforcements of the American judgment, nevertheless considered that there was no violation of French international public policy.

Analysis of a decision with surprising implications.

The Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) recently ruled that an employer can produce in court elements extracted from an employee’s private Facebook account, to which it was not authorized to access, as long as (i) this production is indispensable to the exercise of its right to evidence, and (ii) the violation of the employee’s privacy is proportionate to the goal pursued.

Faced with the urgency of the situation and the risk of imminent damage caused by the sudden termination of an established business relationship, the terminated business partner may ask the summary judge to order the continuation of the relevant contract. This was recalled by the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) in a decision dated June 24, 2020.

Decree No. 2020-925 of July 29, 2020 extends until November 30, 2020 the rules that eased the procedures governing the deliberations of shareholders’ meetings.

This provides the opportunity to review the temporary and exceptional derogations set up on the basis of Law No. 2020-290 of March 25, 2020 to secure the internal operation of companies through the adaptation of the rules governing the holding and deliberations of shareholders’ meetings to the health measures imposed by COVID-19.

The conditions of detention, already well deteriorated due to the overcrowding that has been a constant feature of places of deprivation of liberty for several years, are necessarily and unfortunately adversely affected by the health situation created by the COVID-19 pandemic. How to implement social distancing, and more broadly, so-called “barrier gestures” (i.e. preventative measures that each individual should take to protect himself/herself and others against COVID-19) in places where the daily life is marked by the proximity between fellow inmates? It is impossible to do so.

Consequently, many requests for release from pretrial detention have been filed with the Liberty and Custody Judge. However, these requests for release have been dismissed. Following the upholding of a dismissal order, one inmate appealed to the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court). On August 19, 2020, the Criminal Chamber of the Cour de Cassation issued a ruling that confirmed the dismissal of the request for release.

The Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (French Data Protection authority or “CNIL”) has just imposed a penalty of 250,000 euros on Spartoo, a company specializing in the online sale of shoes. The CNIL noted several breaches of the GDPR, the general regulation on data protection which came into force on May 25, 2018.

This is the first penalty imposed by the CNIL as “lead supervisory authority” in cooperation with other EU supervisory authorities as the consumers (and their personal data) of Spartoo which is based in Grenoble extend beyond French borders.