by K.T. Weaver, SkyVision Solutions
The French data protection authority (‘CNIL’) announced on March 27, 2018, that it had issued a formal notice to the nation’s primary electric supplier for failing to obtain consent for the collection of customer usage data through smart meters [1].
The utility company now has a period of three months to correct the failure or face a fine of up to € 3 million [2].
CNIL observed that at the time of the installation of smart meters, customers were asked to provide a single consent for the installation of the meter and for the collection of hourly electricity consumption data as a corollary to the activation of the new meter and in order to benefit from certain tariffs. However, as the installation was mandatory, customers were in fact only consenting to the data collection. Therefore, CNIL determined that consent was obtained in such a way by the electric supplier that it was invalid, as it could not be considered “free, informed and specific.” [1]