French Supreme Court Rules On Pseudonymisation vs Anonymisation

On 13 February 2026, the French Conseil d'État rejected the appeals filed by the companies GERS, Santestat (absorbed by GERS) and Cegedim Santé — all part of the Cegedim group — against CNIL sanctions of €800,000 (GERS), €200,000 (Santestat) and €800,000 (Cegedim Santé) respectively.

The case arose from the above series of sanctions imposed by the CNIL in 2024 following extensive investigations into the group's processing of health‑related datasets. The Cegedim entities involved operated two large databases used to generate statistical insights for the healthcare sector. Cegedim maintained that the data in question had been rendered anonymous through pseudonymisation techniques.