1. Cybercrime & Cybersecurity
1.1. Cybercrime
Arrest: The OFAC (Cybercrime Office) has announced that it has arrested five of the leading members of the French hacker group ‘MARAK’, which specifically targeted healthcare facilities, companies in the medical sector, and an email service used by the customs service (Press release of 23 June 2026).
Coopération internationale : Europol et INTERPOL ont renouvelé leur partenariat en adoptant de nouvelles priorités opérationnelles communes pour 2026-2027. L’accord vise à renforcer la lutte contre la criminalité organisée, la cybercriminalité, la criminalité financière et le terrorisme grâce à une meilleure coordination des enquêtes transfrontalières. (Communiqué Europol, 22 juin 2026)
YggTorrent shutdown: Cyber investigators from the Gendarmerie have shut down the illegal download site YggTorrent as part of an investigation into organised copyright infringement, targeting the administrators and contributors of the platform used for the unauthorised distribution of copyright-protected works (Press release from the National Gendarmerie, 1 July 2026)
Awareness-raising: Cybermalveillance.gouv.fr has launched the MalletteCyber Pro, a free toolkit designed for micro-enterprises and SMEs to strengthen their cybersecurity culture and help them better protect themselves against cyberattacks. Developed in collaboration with a wide range of industry professionals, this educational resource offers practical tools to raise awareness amongst managers and staff about digital risks and best practices for protection. (Press release dated 25 June 2026)
1.2. Cybersecurity
Action Plan: The European Commission has presented an action plan aimed at strengthening cybersecurity in the face of risks associated with advanced artificial intelligence models. The plan provides, in particular, for the assessment of AI systems, the development of European testing and monitoring capabilities, and increased support for innovation to better prevent and counter cyberattacks. (Press release dated 7 June 2026)
Cyber espionage: ANSSI and CERT-FR have published a report on malicious cyber activities carried out against French interests using the Turla attack methodology, in support of the attribution statement issued by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, which forms part of a coordinated approach by the European Union and its Member States to expose and sanction actors within the Russian offensive cyber ecosystem. (Press release dated 13 July 2026)
Digital Sovereignty: The report by the National Assembly’s committee of inquiry highlights France’s technological dependencies on foreign actors and the resulting vulnerabilities to its strategic autonomy. It sets out recommendations aimed at strengthening resilience, control over critical infrastructure and national digital independence. (Press release of 8 July 2026)
2. Desinformation and information warfare
Online propaganda: The Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that the ban on broadcasting content from the Russia Today channel also applies to websites freely accessible to the public, confirming that the restrictive measures adopted by the European Union target all means of disseminating such content in order to combat Russian propaganda in the context of the war in Ukraine (Press release from the Court of Justice of the European Union, 2 July 2026)
Recommendation: The briefing report on ‘The Regulation of Information in the Digital Sphere’, published on 9 July 2026 by the Senate Committee on Culture, Education, Communication and Sport, recommends the creation of an observatory to monitor internal manipulation of information, the strengthening of European law to protect information, and the imposition of greater accountability on platforms and AI developers. (Press release dated 8 July 2026)
Information: According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2026, social media and video platforms have become the main source of information for 54 per cent of users. The report also highlights a decline in trust in news, with only 37 per cent of respondents stating that they trust the news, whilst 62 per cent find it difficult to distinguish between true and false content. (Press release dated 16 June 2026)
3. Personal data and privacy
3.1. Data breaches and incidents
Data breach: The CNIL is warning victims of data breaches against fraudulent offers promising to delete their data or provide compensation, and is urging them to be vigilant against the resulting scam attempts (Press release from the French Data Protection Authority, 24 June 2026).
3.2. Penalties and regulations
Data transfer: On 29 June, the US Supreme Court’s ruling declaring all of the country’s independent regulatory bodies – including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which is responsible for monitoring compliance with the EU-US agreements on personal data – to be unconstitutional has rendered European and US legislation incompatible. Max Schrems’ organisation, Noyb, is now calling on the European Commission to consider withdrawing from the EU-US data agreement (Press release of 29 June 2026).
Gambling and the GDPR: The CNIL reiterates the obligations of gambling operators regarding the protection of personal data, in particular the minimisation of data collected, transparency in data processing, the security of information and respect for players’ rights, whilst highlighting the high risks associated with the sensitivity of data in this sector (Press release from the French Data Protection Authority dated 27 June 2026)
4. Digital Economy and Competition
Mapping: The IGN has launched cartes.gouv.fr, a free, sovereign mapping platform comprising 1,141 data layers. The service also includes a feature similar to Google Street View and aims to strengthen France’s public digital mapping provision. (IGN press release, 29 June 2026)
Fast fashion: The bill aimed at combating ‘ultra-fast fashion’ has been definitively passed. It provides, in particular, for a ban on advertising such products across all media with effect from 1 January 2027. (Press release of 29 June 2026)
Competition: A Swedish court has ordered Google to pay €1.3 billion to PriceRunner for abuse of a dominant position. The court found that Google had, for several years, favoured its own price comparison service to the detriment of its competitors, causing economic harm to the Swedish company. (Press release dated 1 July 2026)
Competition and AI: Anthropic accuses Alibaba of carrying out an ‘adversarial distillation’ operation targeting its Claude model, using around 25,000 accounts that generated nearly 28.8 million interactions in order to extract the model’s capabilities and train competing systems, a practice raising issues of competition and value capture within the artificial intelligence sector (Press release of 25 June 2026)
Streaming: The streaming platform Spotify has removed more than half a million suspicious streams that had enabled a track to artificially become the most popular song of the month and allowed bettors on the Kalshi prediction market platform to win several million euros (Press release dated 6 July 2026).
Data sharing: The European Commission has ordered Google to share certain search engine ranking data with competitors from January 2027. This measure, taken under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), aims to reduce imbalances between dominant platforms and third-party search engines in order to promote fairer competition in the European digital market. (Press release of 16 July 2026)
5. Artificial Intelligence
5.1. Copyright in the age of IA
Artificial Intelligence: The CSPLA’s 2025 report places artificial intelligence at the heart of intellectual property issues, with a particular focus on remuneration for creators whose works are used to train AI models. The report recommends a framework for negotiation between rights holders and AI providers to ensure a fair sharing of the value generated by these technologies. (Press release of 8 July 2026)
Copyright: Publishers and authors have filed a complaint against Google, accusing it of using copyright-protected books – including those sourced from pirate libraries – to train its Gemini AI model. The plaintiffs allege unauthorised exploitation of the works and direct competition with original creations, and are seeking damages as well as a halt to these practices. (Press release dated 15 July 2026)
Generative AI: The CSPLA has published a report on the legal status of works produced using generative AI. It considers that current copyright law is sufficiently well-suited to protect creations incorporating a significant human creative contribution, whilst excluding purely synthetic works from the scope of protection and proposing tools to safeguard original creation in the face of AI-generated content. (Press release of 16 July 2026)
5.2. Regulation and supervision
Generative AI: The Munich Regional Court (Germany) has ruled that Google is liable for content generated by its ‘AI Overviews’ feature, finding that these responses constitute the company’s own statements rather than mere third-party content; this excludes the limited liability regime applicable to search engines and holds Google liable in the event of false or defamatory statements (Munich Regional Court I, 28 May 2026, judgment no. 26 O 869/26)
Assessment of AI models: The White House is reported to have asked OpenAI to delay the public roll-out of GPT-5.6 to allow for a 30-day security review, with the model initially to be made available to a limited number of partners approved by the US government, as part of the new framework for evaluating advanced AI models (Press release of 25 June 2026)
6. Intellectual Property and counterfeiting
6.1. Legal actions and proceedings
6.2. Regulation and supervision
Intellectual Property: The INPI has announced the publication of a decree simplifying the Intellectual Property Code, aimed at modernising and clarifying certain administrative procedures relating to industrial property rights, in order to facilitate the process for applicants and make the applicable law on patents, trade marks and designs more accessible (Press release from the National Institute of Industrial Property dated 26 June 2026)
Remuneration: The Competition Authority has ordered Meta to resume negotiations in good faith with publishers and news agencies regarding remuneration for neighbouring rights. Taking the view that certain practices could constitute an abuse of a dominant position, it has also required the provision of essential information to ensure transparent and balanced discussions. (Press release of 8 July 2026)
Public domain: The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled that a work which has entered the public domain in one Member State may be freely disseminated there, even if it remains protected in another Member State. However, the website making it available online must put in place effective technical measures to prevent access to it from countries where copyright is still in force. (Press release of 9 July 2026)
7. Regulation & Justice
7.1. French Law
Digital evidence: A report by a judicial officer is not sufficient to establish with certainty the date on which computer files were created or amended, as the Court of Cassation has pointed out that such reports do not enable the detection of any manipulation of data, which necessitates a rigorous assessment of the reliability of digital evidence in court (Court of Cassation, Civil Division 2, 12 June 2026, No. 24/14629)
7.2. European Law
Abuse of a dominant position: The Court of Justice of the European Union has definitively upheld the €4.1 billion fine imposed on Google for abuse of a dominant position in relation to Android, ruling that the anti-competitive practices relating to the pre-installation of Google Search and Chrome, as well as the agreements imposed on smartphone manufacturers, were valid, thereby rejecting the company’s final appeal (Press release from the Court of Justice of the European Union dated 2 July 2026)
Competition: From 1 July 2026, the EU will apply a customs duty of €3 on low-value parcels imported from non-EU countries. This measure aims to ensure fairer competition, enhance consumer safety and combat customs fraud. (Press release dated 29 June 2026)
Organized crimes: The European Commission is proposing to strengthen Europol and Eurojust in order to better combat organised crime, terrorism and cross-border cybercrime. These measures are intended to improve information sharing, speed up investigations and strengthen judicial cooperation within the European Union. (Press release dated 24 June 2026)
Digital Services Act: The European Commission has reached a preliminary conclusion that certain features of Instagram and Facebook (infinite scrolling, autoplay, notifications and personalised recommendations) breach the Digital Services Act. It argues that these mechanisms encourage excessive use of the platforms, particularly among minors, and that the safeguards put in place by Meta are insufficient. (Press release of 10 July 2026)
Transparency: The European Commission has accepted X’s action plan aimed at complying with the Digital Services Act (DSA), particularly with regard to advertising transparency and researchers’ access to public data. The platform will be required to implement several remedial measures, which will be subject to an independent audit and enhanced monitoring by the European authorities. (Press release of 16 July 2026)
