The National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (Cnil) has just imposed a fine of 400,000 euros on Monsanto for not having informed the persons whose data recorded in a file for lobbying purposes.
In May 2019, several media revealed that the Monsanto company had a file containing the personal data of more than 200 political figures, or belonging to civil society, which could influence the debate or public opinion on the renewal of the authorization of glyphosate in Europe.
Faced with these revelations, the CNIL had received seven complaints, notably from people affected by this file.
A rating assigned to each person according to their influence
According to the regulator, the investigation revealed that the creation of this file had been carried out on behalf of Monsanto by several companies specializing in public relations and lobbying, as part of a major campaign to represent interests. .
This file contained, "for each of these people, information such as the parent organization, the position held, the professional address, the professional landline number, the mobile phone number, the professional e-mail address. and, in certain cases, the Twitter account, ”specifies the CNIL. In addition, a score ranging from 1 to 5 was assigned to each person, in order to assess their influence, credibility and support for Monsanto on various subjects such as pesticides or genetically modified organisms ...
To justify its decision, the CNIL considered that the company had disregarded the regulations by not informing the persons concerned of the recording of their data in this file. In addition, the Commission sanctioned the fact that the company had not put in place the contractual guarantees that should normally govern relations with a subcontractor. She stressed that the obligation to inform individuals is a central measure within the GDPR insofar as it allows them to exercise their rights, in particular the right to object.
