Illustration of a Linky counter. - G. Durand / 20 Minutes

  • After gathering nearly 12,500 signatures from citizens opposed to the Linky smart meter, lawyers are preparing to launch a collective action against Enedis.
  • The latter want to enforce the refusal of the citizens' counter, whether for health reasons or to respect privacy through the collection of data.

The sling against the Linky counter is far from over. After having obtained from a Toulouse summary judge the right for 13 electro-sensitive plaintiffs to refuse the installation of this so-called “smart” meter at home, lawyers have decided to launch a large-scale legal action against Enedis.

In November, through the MySmartCab platform, a “collective action petition” was launched to ask the electricity network manager to respect the individual refusal to install the Linky. It collected nearly 12,500 signatures and the collective of lawyers therefore put Enedis on notice to remove the meters already installed or not to ask them for those who expressed a refusal.

However, since Enedis' response was not satisfactory, "we are obliged to proceed to the third phase, we are going to propose to all the petitioners to go to collective legal action and according to a survey carried out with them, they are more than 82% wanting to get started, ”explains Christophe Lèguevaques, one of the lawyers involved in this sling.

#linky Opening of registrations for the largest collective action launched in France from Tuesday 25/2 (if we manage to debug everything or rather if super @lexprecia still has a sleepless night) https://t.co/wnopnUN20t

- christoleguevaques (@ CLeguevaques31) February 24, 2020

Before filing a summons before the judicial court by the month of June, an online subscription was launched on Monday at a price of 8.20 euros per month for those who would like to get started, "the price of a coffee per week, ”notes Christophe Lèguevaques.

Freedom of choice… or not

With his colleagues, he intends to assert respect for the freedom of choice of consumers to accept or not the pose, but also respect for their health in the face of electromagnetic waves or their privacy through the collection of data. “More and more devices are connected, it is a lot of information in addition to the simple consumption of energy. Once they are decrypted, they have access to data protected by law, "explains Arnaud Durand, one of the lawyers for the group.

For the time being, the controversial communicating meter has been installed in 24 of the 35 million French households. "And 90% say they are satisfied, this makes it easier to operate the network and respond quickly to incidents," explains Stéphane Lesenechal, territorial director of Enedis Toulouse Métropole. For this manager, "independent organizations have confirmed that it does not generate more waves than the old meter and we have implemented actions to listen to customers on health issues". As for the exploitation of the data which could then be used for commercial purposes, "they remain in the meter, they are protected at the same level as the bank data and we have only a cumulation", defends the representative of Enedis.

And to remind in passing that installation is mandatory, even if the customer whose meter is inside his home can assert respect for private property by prohibiting access to the agent who would install the famous Linky . So many questions that will be debated before the court ... In two years at best, if the case is judged quickly.

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  • energy
  • electricity
  • Toulouse
  • Enedis
  • Society
  • Justice
  • Linky counter