Internal investigation and the employer’s safety obligation

The Social Chamber of the Cour de cassation rendered a recent decision regarding an internal investigation conducted in the workplace by the superior of the implicated employee who had a known disagreement with the employee. The Court confirmed the appeal decision which considered that the employee’s incrimination had been made in a hasty and humiliating manner, thus characterizing a breach of the employer’s obligation of safety. > Read analysis

Discussions on secrecy in law enforcement proceedings and on AML/FT regulation

On October 5th, 2022, the annual conference of the AMF Enforcement Committee was held. During this event, members of regulatory authorities, magistrates, professors and attorneys discussed the issues of secrecy in law enforcement proceedings as well as regulatory developments in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. > Read analysis

Environmental criminal law: A new judicial public interest agreement on environmental crime

A public interest judicial agreement was concluded between the company Nestlé France and the public prosecutor’s office of Charleville-Mézières for pollution acts caused by a discharge of effluents resulting from the malfunctioning of an automaton controlling a wastewater treatment plant. (CJIP, Sept. 12, 2022). > Read article

Campaign expense fraud: three years in prison for Claude Guéant

On Wednesday 12 October 2022, the Nanterre prosecutor’s office requested three years imprisonment, suspended on probation, for former Interior Minister Claude Guéant, who is on trial before the criminal court for fraud. The prosecution accuses him of having knowingly underestimated his campaign accounts and thus obtained a reimbursement of more than 30,000 euros, when he was a candidate for deputy in the Hauts-de-Seine. > Read article

The yearly accounts of a corporate foundation that has not received any public funding do not have to be disclosed

On October 7, the French Conseil d’Etat  confirmed its previous case law and ruled that the provisions for the safeguarding of privacy apply to legal persons. In this particular case, the annual accounts of a company foundation are protected by this right. > Read article

Pre-trial detention: the extended time limit of article 145-2, paragraph 2, of the criminal procedure code, only applies to crimes

In June 2022, the investigating chamber ordered the extension, beyond two years of the pre-trial detention of an accused person charged with fencing and aggravated theft, based on article 145-2 of the criminal procedure code. The defendant appealed to the French Supreme Court. He argued that theft remains an offence which, even if aggravated by the circumstance of an organized gang, does not become a crime. Consequently, in a decision of September 13, 2022, the Court of Cassation ruled that the terms “crime committed in an organized gang” contained in article 145-2 of the code of criminal procedure presupposes that the acts prosecuted can be qualified as criminal, independently of the circumstance of an organized gang. p. >Read article

Moving towards a new framework for the transfer of personal data between the United States and the European Union

On 7 October 2022, Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on the new European Union-United States’ data privacy framework implementing new binding safeguards including regarding the access of data by US intelligence authorities. This Executive Order addresses the concerns raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union in two decisions from 2015 and 2020 that considered that the previous frameworks in place did not adequately protect the privacy of European citizens. > Read article