Jérémie Assous obtained compensation for the candidates of the reality show by claiming that they worked on the screen.
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ALAIN JOCARD / AFP
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of reality TV, "20 Minutes" offers a series of articles on this phenomenon which has shaken the small screen.
The lawyer Jérémie Assous agreed to tell how he had obtained compensation in court for the candidates by arguing that they should benefit from a real employment contract.
In twenty years, he claims to have defended about 450 candidates, to have enriched himself and made himself known thanks to this.
Jérémie Assous has as many admirers as he has detractors.
He knows it.
And he plays with it.
The price of success.
In the early 2000s, while a young lawyer, he succeeded in having the participation of a candidate for the show
L'île de la temptation
reclassified as an employment contract
, bending TF1 and the big production companies.
So when
20 Minutes
calls him to ask him to come back to this story, he doesn't have to be asked.
And devotes two hours of his time to telling his story, digressing on Marx, the 65-year-old dinosaurs, his supposedly arrogant side and everything that makes the profession of lawyer the salt.
Diving with him 20 years ago ...
How did you end up defending a candidate for a reality show?
It is the story of a young man who comes to see me.
He's a stripper.
He does not have the means, but he is looking for a lawyer because he is worried about the broadcast of a porn movie in which he has acted.
He absolutely wants to stop its distribution.
It is May 2003. I am 25 years old, I have just taken the oath and this man is one of my first clients.
At the time, I didn't know anything about intellectual property.
But I find the parade legal.
And he is compensated in disproportionate proportions.
This is where he explains to me that other porn movies he's been in may resurface, since he's just been on a reality show.
So he tells you about
The Island of Temptation
.
At the time, did you know this show?
No.
It never interested me, actually.
When there was
Loft Story
, I was in fifth year of law school.
I remember being devastated by this spectacle, convinced that all the contestants would be the laughing stock of the whole world when they came out.
Instead, we invited them to climb the steps of the Cannes Film Festival ... Proof of my insight ...
Do you immediately understand that there is a labor law problem with contracts?
Not at all.
I owe it to TF1!
In fact, my client sends me his partner who also participated in
The Island of Temptation
.
She wants to prevent the dissemination of photographs that will be described as "artistic nudes" and that
Newlook is
preparing to publish.
Yes, at the time, I was cleaning the Augean stables ...
The problem is that the contract she had signed with
Newlook
was incompatible with that of TF1.
The latter specified that she could only pose for TF1, under penalty of a fine of 15,000 euros per shot published elsewhere.
I reassure her by telling her that it has no value and I ask TF1 to confirm it in writing.
But there, TF1 laughs at me.
And wish me good luck to obtain the nullity of his contract ...
Doesn't that scare you?
In fact, the only way to reassure my client is to go to court.
So, I read the TF1 contract in detail.
And I don't understand a thing.
It is unreadable.
I apply Louis-Ferdinand Céline's method: I read "with scissors".
[Some experts actually attribute the authorship of this quote to Chateaubriand].
I cut and I put all his contract in the right direction and there, it is bright.
I understand that it is an employment contract that I have in front of me.
An employment contract with exorbitant constraints.
Which ones?
Running them 18 hours a day, depriving them of their freedom to come and go, of all time reference, forcing them to answer the same stupid question thirty times.
The participants were completely subject to the producer by contract.
But is that enough to characterize the fact that they work?
It’s very simple.
The legislator defines the constitutive elements of the employment contract but not what can be considered, or not, as a work performance.
The definition to remember is that of Karl Marx.
The important thing is not what you do, but who you do it for.
It's fun to win thanks to Marx against TF1…
And so you go to the industrial tribunal?
Yes, for me, it is a question of principle and of law.
My colleagues warned me that I was running into failure.
It was enough to turn on the TV to see that these candidates did everything except work: they slept, they drank, they danced, they had fun… I thought that the judges would have the same
a priori
.
But, against all odds, I win.
A symbolic euro!
What happens then?
I present myself with ten candidates and I propose to TF1 to compromise and I ask them for 10,000 euros per candidate.
TF1 refuses and has the excellent idea to appeal the first conviction.
I win again.
The compensation then amounts to 27,000 euros per candidate… And in 2009, the Court of Cassation definitively ratifies the decision.
Jérémie Assous in his office in November 2008. - FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP
A decision that is now being taught to students?
I am very happy because it reminds me that the law is a tool.
It doesn't matter whether you're alone with your computer in front of fifteen cabinets, whether you're 25 facing 65-year-old dinosaurs.
Only your work and your speed count.
Do you understand that it is this kind of remark that makes you arrogant in the eyes of others?
Yes.
But I spare you the tunnels of sleepless nights, the thousands of pieces to study, to analyze, the 200 pages of conclusions to write, the doubts, the blows received, etc.
Moreover, when you think about it, this dossier poses a philosophical question: what is work?
I asked Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche to support Kevin, Dylan and Samantha.
Precisely, have you enriched yourself thanks to reality TV?
Yes, I made a lot of money with this file.
But I invested a lot in the beginning.
The participants had very few means, I remind you.
Basically, I asked 1,000 euros from each of them.
And I can tell you that I was not counting the hours ...
How many have you defended in total?
Around 450, I think.
But why haven't the productions changed their contracts?
Because the very concept of reality TV is illegal.
How do you want to pay people 24 hours a day?
How can we have the right to deprive them of their most basic fundamental freedoms?
I remind you that their phones, watches and even their passports were confiscated.
So the productions are ready to take the risk of being condemned because, anyway, their show earns them more in the end.
A bit like the tabloid press publishes a stolen photo knowing that it will earn them condemnation.
How much are the convictions?
On average, from 1,200 to 1,500 euros per day of shooting.
Temptation Island
lasts for 10 days.
It's 14,000 euros.
Beijing-Express
is 40,000 euros.
Koh Lanta
, 60,000.
Despite these amounts, it remains profitable for producers.
For example,
Koh Lanta
is about 40 million euros in advertising revenue per season.
Because all the candidates do not enter the industrial tribunal?
Take
Koh Lanta
.
There were around 800 participants.
I had to defend 70. That is to say not even 10% of the candidates.
The productions know this well and assume this risk.
Our dossier on reality TV
Today, have you become close to some of your clients?
No.
I never went to them.
I confined myself to my role as a lawyer.
You bought a television anyway since 2003?
For my greater good, still not!
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