The Court of Cassation has confirmed that the use of geolocation technology to monitor employees’ working time is subject to strict conditions. Three cumulative criteria must be met.
First, the employee must not have any freedom in organising their work: a permanent and binding monitoring system is incompatible with genuine autonomy. Secondly, the employer must observe the principle of subsidiarity: geolocation may only be used where no other means (even a less effective means) enables the objective assessment of working time. Thirdly, the system must be proportionate to the aim pursued and accompanied by adequate safeguards against misuse, in accordance with the case law of the European Court of Human Rights and GDPR requirements (the principle of data minimisation).
In the case at hand, the employees concerned, who distributed promotional leaflets, had no discretion over their working schedule, and no other means existed to record their working time objectively and reliably. The tracking system was therefore found to be lawful.
Cass. Soc., 18 March 2026, no. 24-18.976
