In March 2020, France introduced an emergency law imposing a strict lockdown on the whole country. People who did not comply were subject to fines and even jail time. Authorities recorded data on lockdown infringements in a criminal record database previously used only for driving offences, violating French and EU data protection standards.
In November 2020, La Quadrature du Net filed a claim before the Conseil d’État to overturn the French government’s expansion of the criminal record database to include COVID-19 lockdown infringements.
On 21 December 2021, the Conseil d’Etat rejected the challenge, meaning the expansion of the database remains in place.