Business Law

On October 16, 2023, the Internal Market and International Trade committees of the European Parliament adopted their position on the future EU Regulation “on prohibiting products made with forced labor on the Union market” (the “Regulation”).

This Regulation was proposed by the European Commission on September 14, 2022, with the aim of combating forced labor and promoting corporate sustainability standards.

On a global scale, the use of forced labor remains widespread, affecting some 27.6 million people worldwide, according to the International Labor Organization (“ILO”).

On September 12, 2023, the European Commission presented a series of initiatives to provide short-term relief to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), boost their long-term competitiveness, and strengthen fairness in the business environment across the Single Market.

The contemplated measures include new proposals for a Regulation on late payments in commercial transactions and for a Directive establishing a head office tax system for SMBs, as well as additional tools to support SMBs throughout their entire business life cycle.

In two judgments handed down on February 28, 2023, the summary judge of the Paris Judicial Court declared inadmissible the claims of several environmental protection associations seeking that TotalEnergies be ordered to comply with its duty of vigilance obligations under the Law No. 2017-399 of March 27, 2017.

Law No. 2016-1691 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of the economy of December 9, 2016, commonly referred to as the “Sapin II Law”, has provided France with innovative tools inter alia to detect, prevent and punish corruption and breaches of probity.

The reinforcement of the legal arsenal to better fight corruption is one of the major pillars of this Law, and the risks associated to breaches of compliance rules can prove to be a deterrent for buyers in the context of M&A transactions.

On June 27, 2017, the European Commission imposed a €2.42 billion fine on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services.

Google and its parent company Alphabet appealed against this decision before the General Court of the European Union. The Court, in a recent ruling dated November 10, 2021, upheld the European Commission’s decision.

Ordinance No. 2021-1247 published on September 29, 2021 transposes into French consumer law European Directives (EU) 2019/770 and (EU) 2019/771 of May 20, 2019 and introduces a new legal guarantee of conformity specific to digital contents and services.

The new provisions will apply as from January 1, 2022.