'Discrimination': Canal+ faces lawsuit over response to 'Zapper Bolloré' group
The Human Rights League and CGT Spectacle slam Canal+ for an “unacceptable, brutal choice” to discriminate over political and union views, after boss Maxime Saada vowed to stop funding those who signed the anti‑Bolloré op‑ed.
Published on 23/05/2026 - 12:32 GMT+2•Updated 12:49
A response that is not going down well. The Human Rights League (LDH) and the CGT Spectacle union announced on Saturday that they are bringing a civil action before the Nanterre judicial court against Canal+. The two organisations denounce what they call a “discrimination” targeting the signatories of an anti-Bolloré op-ed, after the group decided to stop working with them.
“Canal+ will have to appear in court for breaking the law”, the CGT Spectacle and the LDH said in a statement entitled “No place for discrimination in cinema”.
In the text, seen by Euronews, they describe the “unacceptable and brutal choice” made by Maxime Saada, chairman of the Canal+ management board, whom they accuse of “discriminating on the basis of political and trade-union expression in order to silence those in the industry who speak out against Vincent Bolloré’s growing grip on the entire chain of film production and distribution”.
“If some people go so far as to call Canal+ ‘crypto-fascist’, then I cannot accept working with them”, the head of Canal+ said last Sunday. The group is a major financier of French cinema and belongs to the empire of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré.
For the LDH and CGT Spectacle, this is not a “hot-headed reaction” from Maxime Saada to criticism from some 600 signatories of the op-ed. He “is fully aware of the group’s pivotal role in the financing of films in France and of how dependent the various players in the sector are on it”, the statement continues.
The civil action, led by lawyer Arié Alimi, has two aims: to obtain the annulment, “subject to penalty payments”, of Maxime Saada’s decision, and the appointment of a representative tasked with recording any discrimination within the Canal+ group.
Contacted by Euronews, LDH president Nathalie Tehio explains that this would be a “monitoring” mission, which could be entrusted to an employee of the group or to an external party: “It is for the court to decide,” she says.
A complaint to the European Commission is also being considered, with no precise timetable, in order to sanction what the organisations describe as an “abuse of economic dependence” by Canal+, which they say is part of a broader movement to concentrate cultural industries around Vincent Bolloré.
The Breton billionaire controls a vast media and cultural-industries group that includes television and radio channels, publishing houses, as well as production and distribution activities in broadcasting and cinema.
International figures, including Javier Bardem and Ken Loach, have joined the mobilisation launched by the “Zapper Bolloré” collective.
According to Nathalie Tehio, the fact that the LDH and CGT announcement comes just hours before the 2026 Palme d’Or is no coincidence, as Canal+’s response came during the Cannes Film Festival.
“This is a threat to the entire profession”, she concludes.
