Digital Transformation in France: Legal Innovations
In the article legislative regulation of the digitalization process in France as well as the relevant legal doctrine are analyzed. A research objective is a determination of the main characteristics of this process so as to compare with similar processes in the Russian Federation that the author does by means of general legal and comparative legal methods. The present period of the digital technologies application in France is connected with the platform economy and uberisation having an impact on a legal status of citizens and their relationship with administration. Active development of the modern legislation devoted to the digital state is connected, firstly, with settlement of a movement of data. The principle of openness by default mentioning the public data (data created by authorities) and general interest data (data on administrative contracts, subventions) is established. Authorities are obliged to publish these data online in the open data format. Secondly, the digital State takes care of regulation of the human rights protection in digital society; it is based on the principle of the Internet neutrality. Strengthening of consumer protection is promoted by data portability and platform loyalty which suppliers of Internet services are obliged to provide. As the European General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 was adopted, it is implemented in the French legislation by means of a big number of the norms including specifying procedures of protection of the personal data rights owners. Thirdly, access to digital technologies is differentiated. The French legislation was enriched with the right to the Internet, but also provided this right with obligations of the State, having introduced the state financial aid concerning payment of Internet services costs by analogy with utility costs. The main conclusion of the conducted research consists in complexity of the legislation reforming for rapid implementation of digital technologies to the most different spheres of life. At the same time France is closely involved in the common European process and aimed on the international cooperation in this sphere. Among comparative legal key reference points are useful to Russia, for example, is one concerning personal data protection. With that the research showed that there are spheres in which Russia is quite well developing (for example, digitalisation of public services).