Photo of Stéphanie Martinier

Stéphanie Martinier is a partner in the Corporate Department, working in the Paris office.

Stéphanie advises French and international clients on the legal aspects of their investments in France. She has worked on a wide range of corporate transactions, including business acquisitions and sales (both for industrial clients and private equity funds), and joint ventures, and has been involved in the negotiation of sensitive commercial contracts. In addition, she has built long-term relationships with her clients advising them in this context on compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other French data privacy regulations.

Stéphanie has also developed expertise in the restructuring of corporate groups, in the negotiation of management packages and in dealing with the corporate aspects of the departure of top executives.

In addition, she manages the pro bono work of the Paris office and, as part of this commitment, provides training on the legal aspects of the creation of a business to young entrepreneurs through the program run by the not-for-profit Yes Akademia.

Stéphanie attended law school in both France and the United States, receiving a master of law from University Lyon III and a LL.M from University of Minnesota. She is licensed to practice law in France and New York, and has been with Proskauer since she graduated.

Uncertainty regarding the compatibility of blockchain technology and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has often been highlighted as a potential obstacle to the development and widespread implementation of blockchain systems involving personal data.

To address tensions between blockchain technology and the GDPR, Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL), the French data protection regulator, published an initial report analyzing certain fundamental questions regarding the interaction between blockchain technology and the GDPR’s requirements (the “Report”). The Report was the first guidance issued by a European data protection regulator on this topic.

CNIL’s Approach to Identifying Blockchain Data Controllers and Data Processors

The Report highlights the challenges of identifying data controllers and data processors in the blockchain context – an important distinction that determines which set of regulatory obligations applies.

In discussing the likely classification of the various types of persons and entities involved in a blockchain, the CNIL primarily distinguished between (i) participants (i.e., those who transact on the blockchain) that have the ability to determine what data will be entered into a blockchain or have permission to write on it or cause data to be written to it, and (ii) miners or other validators (i.e., those who do not transact and instead validate transactions submitted by participants). The CNIL also provided an analysis as to how to classify smart contract developers and natural persons who enter personal data in a blockchain, distinguishing, with respect to the latter, between those engaging in personal or household activities and those engaging in professional or commercial activities.