Harassment Lawyer in Paris

What counts as harassment under French criminal law?

French law does not have a single harassment offence. It has a family of them, all built on the same idea: words or conduct that are repeated and that damage the other person, their dignity, their health or their working conditions. Sexist remarks that never stop in an open-plan office, messages sent night after night after a break-up, a campaign of insults on social media, a child singled out at school: each of these situations has its own article in the Penal Code, its own conditions and its own penalties.

Sexual harassment is defined by article 222-33 as imposing on a person, repeatedly, words or conduct with a sexual or sexist connotation that either undermine their dignity because they are degrading or humiliating, or create an intimidating, hostile or offensive situation for them. The same article treats as sexual harassment, even without repetition, any form of serious pressure used to obtain a sexual act, whether for the author or for someone else. Workplace harassment, under article 222-33-2, is repeated conduct whose purpose or effect is a deterioration of working conditions likely to affect the employee's rights and dignity, physical or mental health, or professional future. The general offence of article 222-33-2-2 covers the rest of life: repeated words or conduct that degrade a person's living conditions and damage their physical or mental health.

The word that matters in every one of these texts is repetition. A single unpleasant email is not harassment; a pattern is. That is why, on either side of a case, the first piece of work is always a precise chronology, and why the French page of the firm on harcèlement and this English page start from the same question: can the repetition be proved, and what did it cause?

What penalties apply to harassment in France in 2026?

The penalties depend on the offence and on the circumstances. For sexual harassment, the basic penalty is two years of imprisonment and a 30,000 euro fine, raised to three years and 45,000 euros where the facts are committed by a person abusing the authority of their position, on a child under fifteen, on a person whose vulnerability was apparent or known, by several people acting together, through an online service or a digital medium, in front of a child, by a parent, a grandparent or any person with authority over the victim, or on public transport or in a place giving access to it (article 222-33). In Paris, that last circumstance covers the metro, the RER, buses and their stations.

Workplace harassment is punished by two years and 30,000 euros, and article 222-33-2 provides for no aggravated form. The general offence of article 222-33-2-2 starts lower, at one year and 15,000 euros where there is no incapacity for work or an incapacity of eight days or less. It rises to two years and 30,000 euros where the incapacity exceeds eight days, where the victim is a minor or a vulnerable person, where the facts were committed online or through a digital medium, where the victim holds an elected office, or where a minor was present and witnessed them; and to three years and 45,000 euros where two of those circumstances combine.

Two forms are punished more severely. Harassment of a spouse, civil partner or cohabiting partner, current or former, carries three years and 45,000 euros, five years and 75,000 euros where the incapacity exceeds eight days or a child witnessed it, and ten years and 150,000 euros where it led the victim to take or attempt to take their own life (article 222-33-2-1). These cases are covered in detail on the page of the domestic violence lawyer in Paris. School harassment, a separate offence since the law of 2 March 2022, follows the same scale: three years, five years where the incapacity exceeds eight days, ten years where the pupil was driven to suicide or attempted suicide (article 222-33-2-3).

How does French law deal with online harassment and pile-ons?

Online harassment is not a separate offence: it is the general or the sexual harassment offence, committed through an online service or a digital medium, and that use is in itself an aggravating circumstance. The real specificity of French law lies elsewhere, in the rule on pile-ons, sometimes called raids. Under articles 222-33 and 222-33-2-2, the offence is also made out where several people impose messages on the same victim in a concerted way or at the instigation of one of them, even though none of them acted repeatedly, or where they post one after the other and, without any agreement, know that their messages add up to a repetition.

In practice, this means that someone who sent a single reply under a viral post can find themselves summoned by the police. The defence then turns on what that person knew: did they see the other messages, did they answer a call to target someone, or did they react once, in good faith, to a public debate? Where the case touches on freedom of expression, it often borders on media law, which the firm handles as a practice area of its own.

I am being harassed in Paris: how do I gather evidence and file a complaint?

Start with the evidence, before the complaint. Take dated screenshots that show the sender's name or account, keep the full conversations on the phone or computer where you received them, and delete nothing, even the most hurtful messages: repetition is proved by accumulation. For content that may disappear, a commissaire de justice (a court officer, formerly called huissier) can draw up a formal record. Illegal online content can also be reported on PHAROS, the government reporting platform, but a report is not a complaint and does not start a prosecution on its own.

The complaint itself can be made at any police station or gendarmerie, or by a letter sent to the public prosecutor (procureur de la République). For an English speaker living in Paris, the letter is often the better route. In a first meeting at the firm in the 7th arrondissement, or by video if you are abroad, Maître Bruguière goes through the messages with you, in English, and builds a dated chronology; messages written in English are quoted in the original and translated in the complaint, so that nothing is lost between two languages. The firm then drafts the complaint in French, attaches the evidence in numbered exhibits and follows what the prosecutor decides. Victims can also join the criminal case as a partie civile (civil party) to claim compensation, a route explained in French on the page victimes : plainte et partie civile. Where the harassment is sexual or turns into assault, the page of the sexual assault lawyer in Paris sets out the other offences that may apply.

I have been accused of harassment: what should I do?

Most harassment cases begin with a phone call from the police inviting you to come in for an interview, either as a voluntary interview (audition libre), where you are free to leave, or in garde à vue (police custody). Do not go unprepared. The firm reviews with you the relationship, the messages and the context before the interview, so that you know what the investigators are likely to ask and which answers matter. Being accused is not being guilty: the presumption of innocence applies, and the repeated nature of the conduct, its effect on the other person and, at work, the line between harassment and legitimate management or an ordinary conflict are all open to discussion.

If you are held in custody, the firm comes to the police station. How the lawyer intervenes, from the confidential interview to the questioning, is explained on the page of the police custody lawyer in Paris, and the procedure itself in the police custody section. A person who does not understand French must be informed of their rights through an interpreter and can be assisted by one, and a foreign national can have the consular authorities of their country contacted (articles 63-1 and 63-2 of the Code of Criminal Procedure). After the investigation, the prosecutor decides to prosecute, to use an alternative to prosecution or to close the case (article 40-1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure); a prosecution leads to the criminal court, before the Paris Judicial Court or another court of the region.

Are threats and malicious calls part of a harassment case?

They often travel together, and they can be prosecuted together. Repeated malicious phone calls, repeated malicious electronic messages and noise aimed at disturbing someone's peace are punished by one year of imprisonment and a 15,000 euro fine, three years and 45,000 euros when committed by a spouse or partner (article 222-16 of the Penal Code). A threat to commit a crime or an offence against a person carries six months and 7,500 euros when it is repeated or put in writing, in an image or on any other object, and a death threat in the same conditions three years and 45,000 euros (article 222-17). A threat made with an order to fulfil a condition, by any means, carries three years and 45,000 euros, and five years and 75,000 euros for a death threat (article 222-18).

How long do you have to report harassment in France?

Harassment offences are délits, the middle tier of French offences, and the prosecution time limit for délits is six years under article 8 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Certain offences committed against minors have longer limits, which only start to run at the victim's eighteenth birthday. The legal deadline is rarely the real constraint, though: accounts are closed, messages are deleted and platforms keep data for a limited time. For a victim, the useful moment to secure the evidence is now; for a person under suspicion, it is before the first interview.