Court of cassation, Social division, 1st april 2026, n°24-19.613
A trade union cannot publish a CSE opinion based on confidential data on its website.
In this ruling, the French Supreme Court reaffirmed that the freedom of expression of a trade union is not absolute.
In the case at hand, a trade union published an article on its website reproducing an opinion issued by a company’s central CSE in the context of a consultation on its economic and financial situation.
The company, considering that the publication contained “strategic, sensitive and confidential data relating to its economic and financial situation” which it wished to protect from competitors, requested the central trade union delegate to remove the publication.
In response, the trade union delegate merely deleted the numerical data and the names of clients.
As the publication remained online, the company brought proceedings before the interim relief judge, who ordered the removal of the publication under a penalty of 100 euros per day of delay from the date of the decision. This order was upheld on appeal.
French Supreme Court confirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision, holding that “although the minutes and the opinion of the committee contain no confidentiality notice, the confidential nature of the data was apparent from a number of documents on which that opinion is based.”
In support of this ruling, the Court notably noted that:
The auditor’s report on the annual accounts, the statutory auditor’s certificates relating to net profits, equity and turnover, as well as information on the sole shareholder, all bear the mention “confidential until 04-2024” at the bottom of each page ;
A “Confidentiality end date” column appears in the economic, social and environmental database;
The cover page of the expert report entitled “Summary of the economic and financial audit mission for the year 2022” is stamped confidential in red.
French Supreme Court also recalled that the minutes of CSE meetings, of which advisory opinions form an integral part, are intended to be circulated only within the company.
This ruling highlights the confidential nature of information shared with employee representative bodies, which may justify prohibiting its disclosure in light of the company’s legitimate interests in a competitive environment.