Greenpeace has won a major victory against EDF over industrial espionage, but the shockwaves are likely to be confined to the nuclear industry

Is anyone not spying? Recently, newspapers, telecoms, aerospace and Silicon Valley high-tech firms have all been caught crossing over the line from what’s deemed ethically permissible strategic intelligence gathering to the highly illegal, secret underworld of industrial espionage.

Now add to the list French nuclear giant Electricité de France (EDF) – convicted in a Paris courtroom in November of paying a middleman to break into the computer of Yannick Jadot, the former campaign director of Greenpeace France. EDF wound up with a copy of his entire hard drive and later denied any knowledge of the cybertheft when confronted in court with evidence collected by a special cybercrime unit of the French interior ministry.

The judge didn’t buy EDF’s defence, sentencing two company executives to stiff three-year jail sentences and ordering the company to pay €500,000 in damages to Greenpeace.

People in the field of corporate intelligence say scouring information that is in the public domain – including examining patent filings, information at trade shows and specialised databases – is considered fair game. By contrast, technical surveillance and theft of a computer hard drive enters an impermissible private realm of trespass governed by statutory code.

Observers say the length of the sentences shows just how seriously the judge viewed what the French state-owned company did.

Speaking from outside the courtroom in Paris, Greenpeace’s executive director in France, Adelaide Colin, said: “The fine against EDF and the damages awarded to Greenpeace send a strong message to the nuclear industry that no one is above the law. This case should send a signal to any country considering building reactors with EDF that the company can’t be trusted.”

Powerful questions

Greenpeace fought for years against EDF’s construction of a European pressurised reactor (EPR), a new generation of nuclear power plant, in Flamanville, France. More recently, Greenpeace UK sought (and is currently seeking again) judicial review of the British government’s decision to go ahead with up to four EPR units, which EDF has been granted permission to build.

That EDF felt threatened by Greenpeace campaigners is undeniable. But whether Greenpeace UK is given a boost by this ruling remains to be seen. What is apparent is the awkward timing of this court decision coming on the heels of the Fukushima disaster. As a whole, the nuclear industry is in retreat. Indeed, even in France where 78% of electricity comes from nuclear generation, Green and Socialist party presidential candidates are talking about phasing out 24 reactors by 2025.

Through all of this EDF still managed to post €47.2bn group revenue for the first nine months of 2011.

As for the chilling effect this ruling might have on other rogue corporate actors, one can only surmise a landscape of continued malfeasance – if only because police resources devoted to industrial espionage are minimal to non-existent.

Going up the ladder with jail time for these executives “sends a strong message” to corporate bosses, says James Williams, operations director at QCC Interscan, a leading UK technical surveillance company. But because most law enforcement is focused elsewhere, Williams adds, “it remains very unlikely many are going to be caught”.

 



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