French hotels: allowed to photocopy both bank cards and ID documents?
On 5thJune 2015, the staff of the hotel Empire Paris located in the 1st arrondissement of Paris required my bank card and an identity document just before my spa session. They took a photocopy of them arguing that it would result from a "procedure".
This collection was concealed from the awareness of customers until they attended there. No mention about it had been reported in its website together with its general terms and conditions up to then.
Consequently, I asked the hotel to henceforward stop it by mail of 29th June 2015.
I spread information regarding this hotel to some public representatives and lodged a complaint with the CNIL (French Data Protection Authority).
Public recommendations have been already given on that issue. The police headquarters of Paris indicated that « you increase the risk of fraud or misrepresentation » by giving both photocopies of an identity document and a bank card in some areas such as hotels, restaurants, and bars (1).
The cases of bank frauds were assessed at over one million and they have been persistently increasing since 2010 according to the National Observatory on Crime and Criminal Justice (2).
Admittedly, showing an identity document can be part of the contract as Ms Michèle André, President of the Senate Finance Committee, has noted it. She pointed out what the Ministry for the Economy and Finance has stipulated when the senator Philippe Adnot broached the issue, but she indicated at the same time that getting a copy is most often unnecessary.
The article 6 of the act n°78-17 of 6 January 1978 on Information Technology, Data Files and Civil Liberties provides that the data shall be obtained and processed fairly and lawfully.
It must be mentioned here and now that no misrepresentation and civil status infringement was noticed in the hotel Empire Paris. An investigation in this framework was launched by the public prosecutor's department in Paris and thereafter closed in June 2016.
The city hall of Paris together with some representatives of foreign countries have been informed about the collection occurring in Empire Paris. Its references were removed from the tourist office's website afterwards.
An investigation was conducted by the CNIL too. The collection of personal data from customers that the hotel got through the online bookings was irregular. In France, any company collecting these data must inform the CNIL.
The hotel completed an act of registration in the meantime.
The collection of data occurring on-site would have been linked to police forms. French hotels may indeed ask and collect personal information in some cases owing to legal duties within the framework of pubic safety and police investigation.
However, the article R.611-42 of the Code for Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum provides the collection of these forms for foreign citizens and does not stipulate to get information about bank cards.
Moreover, this article does not allow hotels to get photocopies of identity documents. Hotels only have to report some personal information and the dates of stay in a sheet or a computer file.
In December 2016, the CNIL consequently requested Empire Paris to respect this article.
(1) : www.prefecturedepolice.interieur.gouv.fr/Cybersecurite/Conseils-aux-particuliers/Autres-dangers/Carte-bancaire - Official website of the Headquarter of Paris.
(2) : Summary of the French victim survey "Cadre de vie et sécurité" https://www.inhesj.fr/sites/default/files/fichiers_site/ondrp_ra-2016/2016_ra_synthese_victimation.pdf".
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