Taking a French company to court from UK?

oktaycin

Hi, not sure if I'm posting in the correct category as this is the closest I could find. I'm in a difficult situation and would like some informal advice/information/ideas about taking a parking company in France to court, whether from the UK or France. I do not speak French and this make things difficult in every sense.

About 5-6 months ago during a short family trip I stopped over in Lille and parked in an underground carpark (with cameras and paid gated entrance/exit) before taking the ferry back to UK. When I returned to my car about 4-5 hours later my car was entered into and lot's of valuable stolen (mac laptop, work tools, dashcam, ebook, phones and few other things). 

Now, I totally understand that the parking companies displays a sign that they are "not responsible" for any damage caused etc. But the issue I am having is this:

Upon realising the theft, I immediately when to a local police station and I tried to explain, in English, to the French police about what happened to get a crime reference. One police officer was kind enough to try and help, but he was brushed off by his superiors who insisted on speaking French with me.

The next day back in the UK, I emailed the parking company to explain the situation to them and asked them to retain the video images for police reference. A few days later, I received a positive response that they have the video recordings and that I should forward them the police reference so they can "transmit the request to the relevant service" [their words]. I didi this immediately!

However, another few days passed after forwarding the reference, and this time I received a response that the recordings had been deleted because "the processing time did not allow us to respond in time to the authorities' request" [ their word again].

I am aware that the GDPR requires them to not keep data beyond 15 days. But the problem is that I informed them immediately and there was plenty of time to keep the recordings as per my request. Now there is no recordings and I've lost thousands of pounds worth of valuables.

I want to take action against this parking company for failing to retain the recordings despite my specific request to do so. I've been reading about applying for "exequatur", but I'm not sure what this exactly meanings. Should I apply through the UK small claims court or apply through the French small claims court? Even the small claims court would not be sufficient to cover the full cost of damage, but I also cannot hire a solicitor as it will then exceed the cost. I'm just not sure what to do and any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

DullGreyGuy

oktaycin said:

I am aware that the GDPR requires them to not keep data beyond 15 days. But the problem is that I informed them immediately and there was plenty of time to keep the recordings as per my request. Now there is no recordings and I've lost thousands of pounds worth of valuables.

How do you think having the CCTV recording would result in your goods being returned?

Most CCTV is terrible quality, anyone going to steel stuff won't have their face displayed, the outcome is identical with or without the CCTV. 

We have CCTV at home, designed and setup to monitor our property but it does see out onto the road. It caught one person taking mail out our postbox and 2 cars being stolen on the road. Each time the police have thanked us for the CCTV but there have been no arrests in any of the cases. 

The matter happened in France so any legal action would have to be in France in French... dont waste your time. Hopefully you had appropriate insurance and the items were in the locked boot etc. 

elsien

I’m presuming it’s not about having goods returned but about a possible insurance claim that needs confirmation you were broken into?

NoodleDoodleMan

"Should I apply through the UK small claims court or apply through the French small claims court?"

A UK court will have no jurisdiction.

If you have no police crime report on record the insurance company will not act.   

bagand96

elsien said:

I’m presuming it’s not about having goods returned but about a possible insurance claim that needs confirmation you were broken into?

I also assume the CCTV evidence is to allow the French Police of the crime and issue a crime reference, to then enable an insurance claim?  No idea how things happen in France, but in the UK I'm not sure you need "evidence" to report a crime, you report the crime, the Police open a file with a crime reference and the rest is left to them? 

In terms of legal action I don't think it's any longer an option to pursue a French company via the UK legal system. Unless by some luck they are an international company that had a UK office.  You'd need to take legal action in France.  I know nothing about that, other than anecdotally even basic legal tasks in France can be made very complex.... you've experienced how difficult it was to even report the crime. 

Without very good knowledge of the French language it would be a non-starter unless you got solicitors to help. I'd suggest checking travel/home insurance policies for legal cover, however I fear these would only cover UK Legal assistance anyway.