The Mâcon court dismissed a hundred opponents of Linky meters who claimed the "right to refuse" this device, deeming it harmful, we learned on Tuesday from a judicial source.
The court ruled the claims of the 104 opponents inadmissible, ordering them to pay 5,000 euros to the electricity distributor Enedis, installer of Linky, for the reimbursement of legal costs.
Their lawyer, Me Édouard Raffin, expressed his "disappointment".
"Even if it's not a surprise because it's a complicated case to win," he added, reserving the right to appeal.
“A subject of fundamental freedom”
According to the lawyer, approximately 7,000 plaintiffs throughout France oppose Enedis in the context of various procedures.
That of Mâcon was one of the first substantive hearings.
A new case must be tried in Chalon-sur-Saône (Saône-et-Loire) in the coming weeks.
In November 2020, the Bordeaux Court of Appeal already recognized Linky's "right to refuse" but only for users with a meter in their home.
The anti-Linky would now like this to be recognized also for consumers with a meter outside their homes.
"This case raises a subject of fundamental freedom", pleaded Me Raffin, last March during the hearing in Mâcon.
The lawyer recalled that, in April 2020, Christian Estrosi, LR mayor of Nice, had asked Enedis to verify that the second homes were not occupied in order to enforce the confinement period.
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Enedis's lawyer, Me Gilles Le Chatelier, for his part argued that the distributor had the "obligation" to deploy Linky meters in "100%" of homes "by 2024", failing which it risked a penalty of “50 euros per meter”.
The Enedis defense also assured that Linky only collected “global data” of consumption and “not individualized” (with name and address).
At the end of December 2021, more than 34 million Linky were installed (out of a total fleet of 37.7 million), i.e. a deployment rate of 90.1%.