European Sovereignty Monitor

Policy and law

France's top court upholds Microsoft hosting of health data study

France's Conseil d'Etat rejected challenges to a CNIL authorisation for a 10 million person health data study hosted on Microsoft Azure, ruling the US CLOUD Act access risk acceptable given safeguards and no transfer to the United States.

Verified Conseil d'Etat press release, 20 March 2026

What it does not test. Does not establish that health data hosting will move away from Microsoft, since the ruling upholds the existing arrangement rather than ordering any change.

How this item counts. No movement: no answer to who owns, who operates, whose law governs or who made the parts changes. Weight 0. Court upholds existing Azure hosting of one study, nothing about it changes. European Sovereignty Index

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