Man taken to court for camera on shared path in France
The country's highest judicial court ordered him to remove it
The camera was fixed “high up” and facing a right of way used by the entire neighbourhood
msnobody/Shutterstock
A man who installed a video surveillance camera overlooking a shared path near his property has been ordered to remove it by the highest judicial court.
The man, named only as Mr D, built a wall on what he claimed was the boundary of his property and installed a CCTV camera on it.
The camera was fixed “high up” and facing a right of way used by the entire neighbourhood, court documents stated.
A group of neighbours, unhappy that the camera pointed at the path, took Mr D to court to demand the device be removed.
The court of appeal in Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, where the hearing took place, rejected the request because of a “lack of evidence of a concrete breach of privacy”.
The neighbours then appealed to the Cour de Cassation, France’s highest court for civil and criminal cases, which overturned the appeal court’s decision in April.
Its verdict stated that the court of appeal, in ruling that the positioning of the camera did not constitute a breach of privacy, despite evidence that it recorded people using the path, “violated Article 9 of the Civil Code”.
The Civil Code is applicable in mainland France and French overseas territories, such as French Polynesia. Article 9 states:
- Everyone has the right to respect for their private life;
- The presiding judge may always order… the protective or reinstatement measures necessary to put an end to a manifestly unlawful disturbance.
The Cour de Cassation stated that the positioning of the camera constituted a “manifestly unlawful disturbance”.
The ruling shows that it is the act of installing a camera and filming people that constitutes a breach of privacy, not the broadcasting of the footage or using it to harm. This could have major legal ramifications in France.
The positioning of cameras that might record a shared road, pathway or other area without the express consent of users would constitute an invasion of privacy.
Rules for home security cameras France has strict laws when it comes to installing and filming with video cameras.
It is illegal to film the public highway, ie. any area that is not part of your property.
Video cameras that film only your private property are legal. This includes video doorbells, but they must be correctly positioned so they do not record public areas outside of the owner’s property.
It is not just private individuals who have been caught out by their CCTV usage.
Last December, six communes received a warning from France’s national technology and freedom watchdog for breaking the rules on real-time smart camera surveillance of the public.
