ECHR okays sharing tapped phone calls in Dutch anti-trust case

The European Court of Human Rights dismissed the claim by a group of shipping companies that argued that the Dutch Prosecutors violated their rights when, during investigations into the dumping of illegal waste, they shared recorded phone calls with the Dutch Competition Authority, revealing a price fixing cartel. > Read article

Wiretapping case: Nicolas Sarkozy convicted of corruption and influence peddling

The Paris Court of Appeal sentenced former president Nicolas Sarkozy to three years’ imprisonment for corruption and influence peddling in the so-called “Bismuth case”. The former president’s lawyer, Thierry Herzog, and former senior magistrate Gilbert Azibert were sentenced to the same terms, as well as a three-year ban from practicing law for Mr Herzog. > Read article

Facial recognition: the CNIL imposes a fine on Clearview AI

The CNIL imposed a fine of 5.2M euros on Clearview AI for not complying with the injunction formulated in the sanction decision of October 2022. In the October 2022 decision, the CNIL had pronounced a fine of 20 million euros and had enjoined the company not to proceed, without a legal basis, to the collection and processing of data of persons in France, and to delete the data of these persons after having responded to the requests for access that were sent to it.> Read article

War crimes and crimes against humanity: universal jurisdiction of French criminal courts

In two decisions handed down on 12 May 2023, France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, clarified the conditions under which French courts have jurisdiction to judge acts of torture, crimes against humanity or war crimes when the acts were committed abroad, and the perpetrator and the victim are not French. The Court recognizes the universal jurisdiction of French courts in two cases concerning Syria. > Read article

Embezzlement of mandate expenses: Former MP fined €60,000

A former Socialist parliamentarian was fined €60,000 and banned from standing for election for three years for embezzling €45,000 in expenses between 2015 and 2017, which she has since repaid in full. The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life had reported the case to the prosecutor in 2019 following revelations by Radio France and Le Monde. > Read article

The Controller General of prisons warns once again of the deplorable conditions of detention

The Controller General of prisons denounced the deplorable conditions of detention in France in her annual activity report, which she presented on 11 May 2023. > Read article

Internal Investigations

Navacelle and Mr. Miriasi Thouch, Senior Compliance Expert at Société Générale Assurances, presented internal investigations to the students of the Master 2 Criminal Financial Law of CY Cergy Paris University. > Read publication