Press review – Week of 9 January 2023

This week in the press review, a dismissal of the Chlordecone case in the French West Indies and a $17.2 million fine against Safran for old acts of corruption. Furthermore, in regard to the protection of personal data, the French Data protection authority sanctions Apple with a fine of 8 million euros and its Irish Data protection counterpart fines in their turn Meta 400 million euros. Finally, in the fight against money laundering, the company Coinbase specializing in cryptocurrency was fined $100 million by the New York regulator.

Dismissal of the chlordecone case: the West Indies are “outraged”.

On Monday, 2 January 2023, the investigating judges of the public health division of the Paris court issued an order of dismissal in the chlordecone case in the West Indies. More than 17 years had passed since the first complaint of poisoning in 2006 against the French state for the use of this insecticide classified as a probable carcinogen according to the WHO. The lawyers have announced that they will appeal this order. > Read article

#Anti-corruption: Safran fined $17.2 million for bribes in China

French aircraft engine and equipment manufacturer Safran will have to pay $17.2 million as part of an agreement signed with the U.S. Department of Justice. This agreement concerns an investigation into bribes paid by subsidiaries to Chinses government, which the French giant had itself denounced and which would have taken place between 1999 and 2015. > Read article

Personal data protection: Meta fined another 400 million euros for violating EU regulation

The Irish DPC has condemned the Meta group for breach of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in particular for not having connected the “free and informed” consent of users before processing their personal data in Facebook and Instagram apps. Meta has announced its intention to appeal this decision, contesting its substance. > Read article

Navacelle co-authors GIR of the Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations – 7th edition

NAVACELLE co-authors the French chapter of the seventh edition of Global Investigations Review’s Practitioner’s Guide to Global Investigations. > Read publication

Advertising cookies: Apple is sanctioned by the CNIL

On December 29, 2022, the CNIL fined Apple 8 million euros, for not having collected the explicit consent of French iPhone version 14.6 users regarding advertising trackers. The fine was ultimately less significant, because of the compliance of the company in 2021 during the investigation of the CNIL triggered by a complaint from the association France Digitale. Apple has announced that it will appeal this decision > Read article

Cryptocurrency: Coinbase to pay $100 million fine

Coinbase, the second largest international cryptocurrency trading platform has been fined $50 million by the New York financial regulator for committing several failures to collect sufficient KYC information to combat money laundering. The platform will also have to pay a $50 million fee to ensure compliance. The cryptocurrency market, once lightly regulated, is increasingly subject to scrutinized regulatory oversight. > Read article