About 430 people took legal action in Nanterre, in the Hauts-de-Seine, on Monday to prevent the installation of Linky meters at their homes, or ask that they be removed. This "smart meter", whose installation is managed by Enedis and which allows remote and live monitoring of electricity consumption of customers, is the subject of recurrent controversies since its deployment in 2015.
Before the court of Nanterre, Me Corinne Lepage and Christophe Lèguevaques pleaded for the withdrawal or non-installation of these meters at the applicants, invoking the impact of electromagnetic waves on health, an attack on free choice or life private.
As in Nanterre, private individuals have appealed to courts of summary proceedings throughout France in the form of collective actions - 22 proceedings are in progress, with more than 5,000 applicants. In Nanterre, twenty of them were present. Eric, a retiree from Haute-Marne, talks about "democratic" reasons - opponents of Linky believe that Enedis collects information to sell to third parties. Régine, who created a collective in Vigneux-sur-Seine, Essonne, talks about a neighbor "electro-hypersensitive" who had to move since the installation of the green meter anis at home, no longer supporting headaches and recurrent tingling.
Enedis claims to have taken "serious guarantees" on the health issue
"We are not in a debate between the strongest and the weakest, the powerful against the victims," pleaded the lawyer of the EDF subsidiary, Michel Guénaire. On the health issue, Enedis took "serious guarantees" and did not "pipoté" the National Agency for Health Security (ANSES) - who found "very low" the probability that meters could have harmful effects - contrary to what his opponents said. As for the accusations of "trade" data collected by the counter that now equips 19 million households, they are "implausible", he said. "We will not do anything with this data," said Me Guénaire.
The court of Nanterre will make its decision on August 2nd. If the courts have dismissed the vast majority of anti-Linky for the time being, they got their first victory in March in Toulouse, where thirteen people suffering from hypersensitivity to the airwaves had obtained the right not to be equipped against their will. In Bordeaux, the judge had asked Enedis to put a protective "filter" in a dozen people considered "electro-hypersensitive". Enedis appealed both of these decisions.