OVH is still suffering the consequences of the fire which ravaged its Strasbourg datacenters in March 2021. In addition to making millions of sites inaccessible, it caused damages reaching 1.9 million euros for some. companies. About fifty of them got together to take legal action.
On March 10, 2021, a fire broke out in an OVH datacenter located in Strasbourg. It was then a whole part of the French web that was inaccessible for several hours, not to mention the immense amount of data stored in the cloud that has been lost. In total, it is estimated that 3.6 million sites were impacted by the accident. A colossal figure, part of which was the victim of irreparable damage.
It was therefore, ultimately, only a matter of time before companies called OVH to account. According to Les Échos, about fifty of them got together to prepare collective action against the host, accompanied by the law firm Ziegler & Associés. The latter also reports that the damage caused by the fire is understood between 10,000 and 1.9 million euros. An amount that the complainants intend to recover.
OVH finds itself in court after the fire in Strasbourg
The day after the fire, OVH announced “Commercial gestures” towards the victims, without specifying the content of the latter. Although the firm had then invoked a case of “Force majeure”, it would seem that these compensations did not meet the expectations of the victims. In addition, Ziegler & Associés affirms that “Back-up backups were on the same server as the originals”.
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Added to this is another fault, which OVH firmly refutes: no fire extinguishing system would have been in the server room, which, for clarification, contained 14,000. Finally, the clause “Limitation of liability” does not cover this type of claim, estimates the law firm. The latter therefore requires that “Indirect damage” suffered by its customers are taken into account. OVH therefore risks a heavy fine if justice proves the coalition right.
Source: The echoes
