Data recovery specialist Kroll Ontrack is to open a new data center in Paris in March, in response to rising demand for local investigations into the data of French companies before they come under US scrutiny.

The company which recovers lost data and searches for information relevant to litigation and investigations, needs the new facility to cope with international investigations and litigation taking place in France. A local presence is needed because French organizations need to give local experts access to data within their own borders, according to Kroll Ontrack’s MD for international legal technologies  Tim Phillips. “Our new French data center helps French companies address the increase in international and domestic investigations, the growing volume of data they need to search and the need to comply with increasingly stringent Data Protection legislation.”

Companies in France facing increased risk of substantial legal case work, as a result of cross-border litigation and international arbitration. With global investigations often being led by the US authorities, there is rising concern among French businesses about data sovereignty.

US agencies want access

US legislation, such as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and the work of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the US Department of the Treasury has raised awareness about exposure and risk, according to the company. In Europe, increasing co-operation between regulators enforcing anti-trust law across multiple countries adds to that risk, as does aggressive enforcement by French competition authorities, Kroll Ontrack said. 

The biggest fine on record issued by the FCPA came to $762 billion.

While French companies are obliged to respond to requests for data during these cases, strict local laws governing data protection mean they are reluctant to send information to other countries for processing and hosting in document review databases.

Guidance from the French data protection authority has encouraged French companies to filter their data in France before producing it to courts or authorities in other countries.

With the launch of Kroll Ontrack’s new data center, French organisations will have access within their own borders to local experts and leading technology to help them identify and produce electronic evidence.

Kroll Ontrack is using Interxion to host the resources required by the service, Datacenter Dynamics has been told. This means the company has “no limitations to our processing and storage capabilities within the France data center as our infrastructure can rapidly scale in line with demand”.