While France is holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Commission proposed on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 a legislation to establish a corporate due diligence duty for companies, their contractors and their subcontractors.
Companies will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end or mitigate the adverse impacts of their activities on human rights and the environment.
Imagine that customs officers enter your premises to carry out checks on potential offences without any prima facie evidence concerning these hypothetical offences.
The customs’ right of inspection provided for under Article 66 of the French Customs Code allows this practice.
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.
In a decision dated December 8, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) confirmed that when the mandatory provisions of French law regarding the termination of an employment contract are more favorable, they apply to employment contracts under foreign law performed in France.
Ordinance No. 2021-1658 of December 15, 2021 relating to intellectual property rights in assets generated by software developers or inventors who are neither employees nor public agents and who have been hosted by a legal entity carrying out research (the “Ordinance”) unifies French intellectual property law with respect to service inventions.
Parent companies and large companies acting as principals may be held liable in the event of a breach of their duty of vigilance.
This duty of vigilance takes into account inter alia the risks of environmental damage associated with the operations of these companies, as well as those of their subsidiaries, subcontractors or suppliers.
The debate as to which court is competent to assess a vigilance plan has just been definitively settled: The Paris Judicial Court (Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris) has exclusive jurisdiction to hear disputes over the duty of vigilance.
Strategic Lawyering