Covid-19

On May 20, the President of the Paris Commercial Court, ruling in summary proceedings, considered that the requirements for establishing the existence of force majeure provided for in the framework agreement signed by EDF and Total Direct Energy were met and ordered EDF to accept the suspension of this framework agreement.

Before being discussed before the Commercial Court, the force majeure clause had already been debated during summary

Can a party to a commercial contract escape its obligations because of the economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic?

The answer to this question, which is of the utmost interest to companies of all sizes, is to be found in the new French contract law introduced by Ordinance of February 10, 2016.

Law No. 2020-546 of May 11, 2020 extends the state of health emergency until July 10, 2020 included. As a reminder, the state of health emergency was declared by the Law of March 23, 2020 for an initial period of two months.

In addition to this one-and-a-half-month extension of the state of emergency, the provisions of the Law mark a cautious and progressive lifting of the lockdown in France.

This article provides an overview of the main measures adopted.

While France is entering the first phase of its end-of-lockdown plan, the Government’s strategy to combat a resumption of the epidemic is now based on monitoring “contact tracing”, i.e. the swift identification of any person who has been close to a patient in order to also test him/her and, if necessary, isolate him/her to avoid the spread the of the disease.

French authorities are planning an “information system” based on two medical databases: Sidep and Contact Covid. As the design of the StopCovid app. is still under way, its deployment was not included in the end-of-lockdown plan presented on April 28, 2020.

The combination of sick leave and short-time work is a headache for many employers.

The Government has adopted new measures very recently.

Here is something to get a clearer picture.

On April 24, 2020, the Versailles Court of Appeals handed down an insightful decision concerning the implementation of employee protection measures by employers in the current health context and lockdown imposed by the Government on March 16.

Ruling on an appeal lodged by the American giant Amazon against the order issued by the Nanterre Judicial Court on April 14, 2020, the Versailles Court of Appeals upheld the order in that it provided for a mandatory obligation to implement a comprehensive national health and safety prevention plan for employees, with prior consultation with staff representatives. This decision is in line with the need to reconcile the necessity to maintain a business activity with the preservation of employees’ health.