French Employment law - Necessary harm - Right to an employee's image: its violation by the employer necessarily gives rise to the right to compensation (c. cass. February 14, 2024, no. 22-18.014)

The social chamber of the Court of Cassation, in a judgment of February 14, 2024 (no. 22-18.014), recalls that the simple observation of the violation of an employee's right to image gives rise to the right to compensation.

1) Solution.

The social chamber agrees with the employee and overturns and annuls the judgment of the Versailles Court of Appeal.

The judges of the High Court begin by recalling that it follows from Article 9 of the Civil Code that

“the right that the person has over his or her image relates to its capture, conservation, reproduction and use, and that the mere observation of an infringement gives rise to the right to compensation.”

In this case, the Versailles Court of Appeal dismissed the employee's claims for damages in respect of his image rights, holding that the employee did not produce any useful documents to support his claim and therefore did not put the court in a position to assess the reality of the alleged infringement.

However, the company itself recognized the use of the employee's image on a brochure presenting the concierges, addressed to customers, produced from individual photographs of the concierges' faces and busts as well as collective photographs.

The social chamber censures this reasoning and considers that:

“By ruling thus, while the employer did not deny having used the image of the employee to produce a brochure addressed to customers, that the employee argued in his pleadings that he had not given his agreement to this use and that the mere observation of the infringement of image rights gives rise to the right to compensation, the court of appeal violated the above-mentioned text.

2) Analysis.

This judgment does not pose a new solution.

Indeed, the Court of Cassation has already had the opportunity to judge that the mere finding of an infringement of image rights gives rise to the right to compensation in a judgment of January 19, 2022 (n°20-12.420).

This specific judgment should attract the attention of employers: any use of employees' images requires their agreement, even if this image is used on brochures intended for the company's customers.

Furthermore, this judgment is interesting from an evidentiary point of view: the employee does not provide proof of the use of his image, but the Court considers that the finding of the infringement of image rights results from the own admission of the Company.

To read all the article, please click on the link below

French labour law - Necessary harm - Right to an employee's image: its violation by the employer necessarily gives rise to the right to compensation (c. cass. February 14, 2024, no. 22-18.014) | par Me Frédéric CHHUM (consultation.avocat.fr)

Sources

Cass. soc., 14 février 2024, n° 22-18.014.

Frédéric CHHUM avocat et ancien membre du conseil de l’ordre des avocats de Paris (mandat 2019-2021)

Mathilde Fruton Létard élève avocate

CHHUM AVOCATS (Paris, Nantes, Lille)

e-mail: chhum@chhum-avocats.com

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