French administrative court confirms CNIL decision sanctioning violation of "right to be forgotten" by online case law database On 23 March 2015, the Conseil d'Etat, the highest administrative court in France and the court of appeal for CNIL's decisions, confirmed a CNIL decision sanctioning a violation of the right to oppose the processing of personal data by an online case law website, lexeek.com, grounded on article 38 of the French Data Protection Act ("FDPA") which allows relief for failure to delete or anonymize data within two months upon request by an aggrieved individual. The website had posted legal decisions containing the names of four plaintiffs contrary to the CNIL's 2001 recommendation that case law made available on legal databases should be anonymized. In addition, the website had further failed to delete or anonymize the decisions in question despite the individuals' request to do so. The CNIL imposed an administrative fine amounting to EUR 10,000 after having served a formal notice on the website to comply with the individuals' request of opposition. The decision also comes as a confirmation that a website publisher that organizes, references and makes available legal decisions online is deemed to act as data controller over any personal data contained in such decisions, despite not being the original author of such decisions. Finally, though the argument was not raised in the Conseil d'Etat proceedings, the decision shows that the balance is ever-more tipped in favour of the "right to be forgotten" when balanced against the "right to information," which might have justified publishing named decisions on the Internet for public information purposes. For more information, please contact Denise Lebeau-Marianna or Marion Bergeret.
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