All publications by Florence Grangerat

On December 22, 2022, Mr. Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance, Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, and Mr. Olivier Becht, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad, Attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, announced in a press release that the temporary measure lowering the threshold of voting rights in listed French companies that triggers foreign investment control in France will be extended until December 31, 2023.

In a judgment handed down on November 22, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union, sitting as the Grand Chamber, held that, in the light of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, the provision of the so-called anti-money laundering Directive whereby Member States must ensure that the information on the beneficial owners of corporate and other legal entities incorporated within their territory is accessible in all cases to any member of the general public is invalid.

The creation of a company, which is far from insignificant, requires considering various issues before the incorporation so that the project can be carried out successfully and achieved in the most relevant way possible.

As legal advisor, one of the first questions that the lawyer must ask his/her client is the overall purpose of the entrepreneurial project.

It is clear that family-owned sociétés civiles immobilières (non-commercial property holding companies) are an inexhaustible source of litigation, particularly with regard to the rights of the usufructuary.

The ruling handed down by the Third Civil Chamber of the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) on February 16, 2022 provides another significant example of this as it was published in the Bulletin of the Cour de Cassation.

Parent companies are often asked to guarantee the commitments of their subsidiaries towards third parties. The guarantee can take various forms, but the most frequently used ones are the joint and several guarantee (cautionnement), the independent guarantee (garantie autonome) and the letter of intent (lettre d’intention).

The conditions of validity of a guarantee will vary depending on the type of company issuing the guarantee, i.e., limited liability company or unlimited liability company. Furthermore, joint-stock companies are specific in that the prior authorization of the board of directors, or supervisory board as the case may be, is required for the granting of any sureties, endorsements and guarantees. Other limitations may result from the nature of the guarantee itself.

The decision issued on February 20, 2021 by the Commercial Chamber of the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme court) rightly recalls that the failure to convene the statutory auditor to the ordinary general meeting does not result in the nullity of the deliberations made during such meeting.