FRANCE—Right To Be De-Listed and Criminal Offense. Where Is The Limit?


Published
Contributors:
Pascale Gelly
DPO
Schneider Electric
Where is the limit between the right to information and the right to privacy when an individual has been condemned to a jail sentence for fraud and the case has been reported in a news the article referenced by a search engine?
The Paris Court of First Instance decided on December 19, 2014, to set it as follows in emergency proceedings:
- The individual was looking for a job and had difficulties to find one because of this reference under her name through web searches.
- The jail sentence was not specified on the section of the person’s criminal record made available to third parties; this was considered as a sign that for the French society that the information was not meant to be available to others, including potential employers.
- The sentence had been ordered a long time ago (eight years).
The individual then showed prevailing and legitimate grounds to have the information de-listed, over the right to information.



