In France, the guiding principle is that emails received or sent by an employee through the employer’s company email account are considered “professional”, which means that the employer can access and read them.  However, French employers must be cautious before accessing their employees’ professional emails because they are not permitted to access emails that have been identified by the employee as being “ personal” or “ private”.  Recently, the French Supreme Court, in a decision of June 19th, 2013 (n°12-12138: http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriJudi.do?oldAction=rechJuriJudi&idTexte=JURITEXT000027596663&fastReqId=1099388011&fastPos=1) addressed this issue in detail.