Happy 2024 Bastille Day !
While it seems likely that political intervention in the economy will grow further still, thus densifying disruption to private sector decision making, French regulatory enforcement and the judiciary are doing just fine.
The conditions for such vitality are indeed in place : corporations are expected to meet a myriad of laws – hard and soft – and social media may spark whistleblower activity in infinite shape and form.
In addition, guidelines are multiplying giving greater visibility to what regulators expect, corporate accountability is growing from newly lifted limits to criminal exposure and just when the environment seems to have disappeared from the public debate, legal proceedings take it up.
As we have written in previous Bastille Day Newsletter, we strongly believe legal professionals have a specific obligation to engage with all stakeholders to make sure the rule of law(yers 😉) prevails in this context of ever-increasing regulation and litigation. To a large extent, we are rightfully expected as peacemakers. How so? By doing our job right.
Lawyers at Navacelle thought you might be interested in 5 short panoramas on select noticeable French events relevant to the firms’ main areas of practice: arbitration, ethics & compliance, regulatory enforcement, white collar criminal defense, CSR compliance related enforcement.
Enjoy the read!
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White Collar Crime
In white collar crime, the last twelve months have been characterized by the authorities’determination to intensify the prosecution of offences, in particular by strengthening investigations and imposing a greater number of sanctions. The year was also marked by a number of landmark rulings.
Regulatory matters & investigations
Regulation, enforcement and litigation activities have, again, been prolific this year at the French Financial Market Authority (AMF), the Prudential and Resolution Control Authority (ACPR), the Commission Nationale de l’Informatique et des Libertés (CNIL, French authority overseeing, among others, data processing issues).
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Overview of 2024 in Regulatory matters & investigations
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The Financial Market Authority activities
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The French competition authority leniency program
Environmental law & duty of vigilance
Over the past twelve months, the growing interest in environmental impacts, which transcends borders and reflects an increasing awareness of the need to protect our environment, has been demonstrated by the enactment of significant new obligations for companies through European legislation and the issuance of instructive decisions in the fields of environmental law and the corporate due diligence duty.
Ethics & Compliance
Seven years after the entry into force of Law No. 2016-1691 of 9 December 2016, relating to transparency, the fight against corruption, and the modernization of economic life, known as “Sapin II Law”, French authorities continue their efforts towards better management of corruption risks and other breaches of integrity, notably by strengthening corporate and public sector compliance mechanisms.
Arbitration
Case law related to arbitral handed down these last twelve months has again been plethoric. Several decisions involved issues related to criminal law, notably dealing with the admissibility of evidence obtained unfairly and procedural fraud surrounding the concealment of evidence during arbitration, the content of international public policy in the context of the fight against tax fraud and the consequences of foreign criminal proceedings on annulment proceedings.
Finaly, to learn more about the July Column (Colonne de Juillet), located on the Place de la Bastille in Paris :