France

From Personality Rights Database

France

1 Personality rights in France: An Introduction
2 France: Case list
3 France: Literature list

[edit] 1 Personality rights in France: An Introduction

Personality rights are strongly protected in France through the protection of private life in Article 9 of the French Civil Code. This measure has been used to prevent unauthorised reproduction of images by ordinary and famous individuals alike. It would thus appear that personality rights in France are based on dignitary rather than commercial concerns although the exercise of the rights can have commercial implications.

On the side of privacy are cases such as Philippe, where photographers and reporters had entered a hospital room to take photographs of an ill child. Individuals are not just protected within enclosed spaces, but also against the intrusive nature of long-lens photography such as that employed in the Bardot and Schneider cases.

Commercial aspects of personality are also protected. The French doctrine “finalité” places restrictions on what the press are able to publish in respect of images of individuals. The courts look to what has been authorised by an individual and limits the extent of publication to such authorisation. Catherine Deneuve could thus prevent magazine from printing photographs of her that it had bought from another, where that other magazine had produced and published them with her consent. Recent cases also construe this “goal of publication” element narrowly. The Cour de Cassation prevented a magazine from publishing photographs of items of merchandise that portrayed the image of Johnny Halliday and which Johnny Halliday had authorised for sale. The scope of a publicity campaign has also to be known to an individual and that individual must consent to the extent to which an image will be used in such a campaign B / SA C.