Database

The creation of a false profile or account in social media networks is prohibited.

A ministerial circular dated 5 April 2016 on public procurement states that it it illegal to use a non "sovereign" cloud for data produced by public (national and local) administration: all data from public administrations has to be considered as archives and therefore stored and processed in France.

France Telecom has been investigated for offering better network bandwidth to companies related to Orange in detriment of its competitors. For instance, Cogent accused Orange to restrict access to its content by privileging the traffic of its subsidiary Dailymotion over that of YouTube.

In July 2016, France passed the Freedom of Creation Act, a set of measures designed to bolster suppliers of cultural products through subsidies and other governmental interventions. The so-called “thumbnail amendment” in the Freedom of Creation Act, found in Article 30, requires “automated image referencing services” to remunerate French rights collecting societies for the right to “reproduce and represent” an image. Individual artists or photographers cannot opt out of this licensing regime.

Although the act requires its implementation no later than six months after its promulgation, on January 2017, the French government’s initial Article 30 implementing decree was rejected by the State Council, France’s highest administrative court, on the grounds that the article’s remuneration mechanism did not conform to EU legislation. It remains to be seen how the act will be implemented and in particular how images subject to the thumbnail amendment will be determined and how a collecting society will be managed and funded. But these requirements could present market access barriers for online services that index images, and they may affect the ability of these and other innovative services to operate and grow in the French market.

The proposed Fake News Law would empower France's independent broadcast authority to unilaterally suspend the license of any “foreign-influenced media organization” during a national electoral campaign. The bill proposes rapid intervention to report, identify, and remove fake news by creating new implementations of "référé", a special procedure that allows one party to refer a case to a single judge to ask for a provisional order.

All French Internet service providers (ISPs) must prevent customers from accessing unlicensed online gambling sites. The French government reimburses ISPs for any additional cost incurred when implementing the DNS restrictions.

The European Court of Justice has interpreted in 2014 that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may be ordered by national courts to block customer access to a copyright-infringing websites. This ruling aims to limit online piracy.

Already before the ECJ interpratation, ISPs in France were ordered to block several video streaming sites, including Allostreaming for copyright infringment.

Directive 2000/31/EC (e-Commerce Directive) states that Member States should not impose on providers a general obligation to monitor the information which they transmit or store, nor a general obligation actively to seek facts or circumstances indicating illegal activity.

However, the French HADOPI law introduces indirect monitoring requirements by implementing a "three strike" procedure for copyright infringements. According to the law, following a notice, an individual downloader may receive a warning that he/she is in breach of the law and may eventually, in case of repeated infringement, be cut off from internet access.

The proposed Fakes News Law would mandate that social networking platforms disclose the identities of advertisers who pay to spread content, as well as the amounts they are paying. The Law recently passed in the French parliament, but was rejected by the Senate, and will likely therefore be amended.

The Tribunal de Grande Instance held that the social network service MySpace goes beyond offering technical hosting activities by offering an architecture based on frames and by receiving advertisement revenue linked to the content that is viewed and therefore could not benefit from a liability exemption.

In a similar note, the Cour d'Appel de Paris considered that the fact that a site is allowed the classification and structuring of certain information provided by users did not imply an editing activity and, therefore, aggregator of news article links, provided by users, could benefit from a liability exemption for hosting.

The Paris Commercial Court considered that the liability exemption for hosting activities does not apply for eBay because eBay plays an active role in promoting sales with the objective of increasing profits by, for instance, appointing sales managers, creating online "boutiques" and offering the option of becoming a "power seller".

In another case, however, the Paris Civil Court considered that eBay’s activities are covered by the definition of hosting because it was not an editor as it could not be proven that eBay checks the messages that users post on the site.

In yet another case, the Paris Civil Court considered that eBay could benefit from a liability exemption only for those activities that are covered by the definition of hosting of Article 14 of the E-Commerce Directive and eligible for the liability exemption. The eBay's selection of "daily deals" could not be covered.

The Directive 2000/31/EC (E-Commerce Directive) is the legal basis governing the liability of Internet Services Providers (ISPs) in the EU Member States and includes a conditional safe harbor. The Directive covers any type of infringement of third-party rights, including intellectual and industrial property rights and personality rights.

The limitations on liability in the Directive apply to clearly delimited activities (mere conduit, caching and hosting) carried out by internet intermediaries, rather than to categories of service providers or types of information. While it was not considered necessary to cover hyperlinks and search engines in the Directive, the Commission has encouraged Member States to further develop legal security for Internet intermediaries.

Since not all Member States have transposed the relevant articles consistently, the national case law is divergent and leads to legal insecurity on an EU level.

In France, the Law No.2004-575 for confidence in the digital economy implements limitations of liability provided in the e-Commerce Directive. There are no specific exemptions for linking providers and their liability is decided by court interpretations.

Through a decree amending the Code of Electronic Communications, France has included a “territorial” restriction requiring that the systems for interception of electronic communications must be established in France.

Law 2006-64 of January 2006 gives to the government the possibility to obtain data directly from Internet Services Providers (ISPs) without a court order.

In December 2013, such requirement was expanded. With the adoption of the Military Programming Law, both the security forces and intelligence services from various ministries (defense, interior, economy and budget) are allowed to see “electronic and digital communications” in “real time”. Under the law, agencies have until 48 hours after surveillance has begun to seek approval from the National Commission for the Control of Security Intercepts (CNCIS) president and can continue while awaiting his/her decision. The law came into force in January 2015.

In May 2014, the European Court of Justice ruled that individuals are entitled to seek the deletion of links on search engines about themself if "the data appear to be inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant, or excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were processed and in the light of the time that has elapsed". The ruling is therefore recognizing the so-called right to be forgotten.

France enforces the ECJ decision trough its the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL). In March 2016, it fined Google €100,000 for not applying Europe’s right to be forgotten across the search engine’s global network of sites.