New technologies

Regulation (EU) 2023/988 on General Product Safety (GPSR) entered into force on December 14, 2024. This new legal framework aims to strengthen consumer protection against growing risks associated with digitalization, new technologies, and the globalization of supply chains.

It introduces new obligations for economic operators and providers of online marketplaces while clarifying market surveillance mechanisms and the powers of national authorities.

On November 13, 2024, the European Commission fined Meta €797.72 million euros for breaching European Union antitrust rules.

It found that the Tech Giant has abused its dominant positions by tying its online classified ads service Facebook Marketplace to its personal social network Facebook, and imposing unfair trading conditions on other online classified ads service providers.

On May 29, 2024, the European Commission unveiled the Artificial Intelligence Office aimed at “enabling the future development, deployment and use of AI in a way that fosters societal and economic benefits and innovation, while mitigating risks”.

This new Office will play a key role in implementing the European Artificial Intelligence Act, strengthen the development and use of safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence, and positioning the European Union as a leader in international discussions.

Google has agreed to pay a substantial new fine of €250 million to the French Competition Authority for failing to comply with its commitments regarding related rights (also known as neighboring rights).

Law No. 2019-775 of July 24, 2019 “on the creation of related rights for the benefit of news agencies and press publishers”, that transposed Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, aims at ensuring fair compensation for news agencies and press publishers when their contents are reused on online platforms.

France offers many advantages for businesses, in particular thanks to its central location in Europe, the 2nd largest market in the world, a well-trained workforce and one of the highest hourly productivity rates, an advantageous tax system, as well as an appreciable environmental protection.

The French Government has set up rules to screen foreign investments. This screening has not prevented a significant number of foreign projects from being authorized in 2022.

The French Government has recently been encouraging foreign investments in the industrial and green sectors.

Given the extensive development of NFTs (“Non-Fungible Tokens”, Jeton Non Fongibles or “JNFs” in French), it had become urgent to assess the current legal situation and then to propose solutions or at least avenues of reflection to control their expansion, while respecting copyright and related rights (also known as neighboring rights).

This mission was entrusted to the Higher Council for Literary and Artistic Property (Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique) which presented its report on the subject on July 12, 2022.