1. Cybercrime & Cybersecurity
1.1. Cybercrime
Leakbase: A joint international operation between the FBI and Europol led to the seizure of the Leakbase forum, an English-language website dedicated to hacking and sharing stolen data. Authorities were able to recover its entire database in order to identify and prosecute those involved in trafficking hacked data. (Press release of March 5th, 2026)
Zero-day vulnerabilities: The CEO of a supplier of zero-day vulnerabilities (software vulnerabilities not identified by publishers) to the United States and the Five Eyes alliance has been sentenced to seven years in prison for stealing and selling eight vulnerabilities to a Russian broker. (Press release dated 24 February 2026)
1.1. Cybersecurity
Tiktok: The social network has announced that it will not be rolling out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for its communications, highlighting the risk this poses to users. Tiktok justifies this decision by stating that full encryption would prevent it from detecting and moderating certain dangerous content. (Press release dated March 2, 2026)
2. Desinformation and information warfare
3. Personal data and privacy
3.1. Data breaches and incidents
3.2. Penalties and regulations
Collection of personal data: In a decision dated March 4, 2026, the Council of State upheld the €40 million fine imposed by the French Data Protection Authority on advertising company Criteo for violating the GDPR. At the time, the French Authority criticized the company for failing to verify that users had actually given their consent, for a lack of transparency regarding the use of data, and for making it difficult for users to exercise their rights. The Council of State therefore upheld the penalty imposed. (French Council of State, March 4th 2026, Criteo Company, n°482872)
Data protection: The French Data Protection Authority (CNIL) has published and updated its document on personal data protection policy, bringing together case law and important texts for professionals. (Tables Informatiques et Libertés – 2026 edition)
4. Digital Economy and Competition
5. Artificial Intelligence
5.1. Copyright in the age of IA
5.2. Regulation and supervision
6. Intellectual Property and counterfeiting
6.1. Legal actions and proceedings
Piracy: French piracy giant YggTorrent has announced its permanent closure following a breach of its own servers. This decision comes amid a climate of tension, with the announced switch to a pay-to-use model already sparking fierce opposition from its community. (Press release dated 4 March 2026)
Trademark law: The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) has confirmed that the inactivity of a domain name does not exclude bad faith, thus condemning the owner of louisvuitton-group.com for attempting to take advantage of the reputation of the Louis Vuitton brand. (Decision dated 3 January 2026)
Streaming: The pirate streaming site P-Stream voluntarily shut down after facing legal pressure from the film industry, led by the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the anti-piracy alliance Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE). Based on the DMCA, the US court ordered services such as Cloudflare and Discord to provide information on several streaming sites, including pstream.mov. (Press release of March 6th, 2026)
