Press release: Strategic litigation against the CNAF’s algorithm – La Quadrature du Net coalition
Brussels, Belgium – 20 January 2026
La Quadrature du Net (LQDN), together with the plaintiff organisations, filed a strategic litigation case in October 2024 against la Caisse Nationale des Allocations Familiales (CNAF), a welfare system in France that has been using a scoring algorithm to select which individuals should be subject to controls.
According to LQDN, CNAF has been using for years an algorithm that provided a scoring risk for each beneficiary with the aim of making controls of the allowances. More specifically, CNAF’s algorithm apparently discriminated:
- People receiving social benefits – especially those receiving 3 or more social allocations for a total sum of 600 euros or more.
- Disabled people or people taking care of disabled people.
- Unemployed people.
- Single parents.
- Homes with kids – especially those with 3 or more kids.
- People with low income.
- Foreigners – especially those with a non-EU citizenship.
- Women.
As a result, in 2024, more than 250,000 people were controlled and flagged as suspicious, affecting low-income citizens, disabled, and unemployed people.
As the only pan-European network against racism, we are strongly concerned about its impacts on racialised people and migrants. The fact that the CNAF previously impeded access to information about their algorithm has prevented civil society organisations from knowing the real magnitude of this case.
It is important to flag that these situations do not happen in a vacuum and that they perpetuate systematically the exclusion of those living in the margins. We insist on the need for more transparency and accountability, especially for those who, in theory, are in charge of providing basic needs.
To know more about the case, read the full document below and LDQN press release.
Signatories:
- La Quadrature du Net
- L’association d’Accès aux Droits des Jeunes et d’Accompagnement vers la Majorité (AADJAM)
- Aequitaz
- Amnesty International France
- L’association nationale des assistants de service social (ANAS)
- APF France handicap
- Le Collectif Changer de Cap
- La fondation pour le Logement des défavorisés
- Le Groupe d’information et de soutien des immigré·e·s (Gisti)
- Le Mouton numérique
- La Ligue des droits de l’Homme
- Le Mouvement national des chômeurs et précaires (MNCP)
- Le Mouvement français pour un revenu de base (MFRB)
- Le Collectif National Droits de l’Homme Romeurope et Le Syndicat des avocats de France (SAF)
- Data for Good
- CGT
- EAPN Europe
- UNEF
- Le Mouvement des Mères Isolées
- Solidaires
