Despite lasting covid-related restrictions, corporate criminal novelties have flourished: from the environmental law DPA to anticorruption enforcement action, an upcoming law on restitution of ill-gotten assets, as well as new guidelines by the French Anticorruption Authority (AFA) regarding probity violations prevention and detection in compliance systems.
Caselaw also entered uncharted lands, including proper training required for companies to sanction violations of internal rules (a standard not required for sanctioning a violation of the law) as well as court-imposed requirements for corporates to comply to supply chain due diligence (devoir de vigilance). Significant changes include the possibility for criminal liability to pass on to the surviving company and confirmation by the Supreme court that a plea deal (CRPC) can be rejected by a homologating judge without possibility for appeal.
A law providing attorney-client privilege to in-house counsel was rejected and the same privilege may be limited to litigation-related communications to outside counsel.
Special thanks to Pierre Calderan, Thomas Lapierre, Salomé Garnier, Martin Meric, Aurélia Orofino, Laura Ragazzi & Héloise Vigouroux.
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Enforcement & Court Decisions
- Criminal liability’s transfer to the acquiring company in the event of a merger by acquisition and consecutive due diligence requirements, Read analysis
- The Bolloré case and the risks attached to the French Individual Guilty Pleas, Read analysis
- Jurisdictional issues: when case law does not help clarifying unclear provisions of the law on the corporate duty of vigilance law, Read analysis
- What will be the impact of the transposition of the EU Directive on the protection of whistleblowers into French law?, Read analysis
- AFA updated its recommendations regarding anticorruption programs, Read analysis
- An illustration of the employer’s disciplinary power in case of non-compliance with internal company rules, Read analysis
- Paris Court of Appeal highlights the growing importance of compliance in arbitration, Read analysis
- Preserving the primacy of due process and fair trial rights in the special context of the Coronavirus pandemic, Read analysis
- The professional secrecy threatened by recent case law in seizure, Read analysis
- The time limits for consideration of the request for release of a person subject to an extradition request were not extended during the Covid-19 crisis, Read analysis
Legislative, Regulatory & Policy updates
- The strengthening of environmental justice with the introduction of French Environmental CJIP, Read analysis
- The in-house attorney status in France – a bygone idea or an emerging one, Read analysis
- The PNF looks back on a very unusual 2020 year, Read analysis
- AMF’s priority actions and supervision for 2021, Read analysis
- Compliance in the public sector The Ministry of the Armed Forces issued its Code of Conduct of breaches of probity, Read analysis
- French initiatives in the fight against corruption for the period 2021-2030, Read analysis
- Future promulgation of a Law regarding the restitution of ill-gottens assets diverted by officials to the local population, Read analysis
- Short overview of the French legal requirement for internal controls relating to the AML CFT, Read analysis
- The creation of the crime of ecocide in French law unleashes passions, Read analysis
- The evaluation mission of the Sapin II law calls for a boost in France’s anti-corruption policy, Read analysis
- TRACFIN alerts on the emergence of electronic payment services as new vectors used by money laundering and terrorist financing networks, Read analysis
