Press review – Week of 14 November 2022

In this press review, you will find three significant events: the first conviction in France of a former Liberian rebel leader by the Paris criminal Court; the sanction of Essilor by the French Competition Authority for discriminatory commercial practices; and the 800,000 euros conviction against the company DISCORD INC pronounced by the CNIL. In addition, in environmental matters, the ACPR and the AMF published their third report on the monitoring and evaluation of the climate commitments of insurance and banking companies. Finally, the French Minister of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti, has announced a softening of the gateways between the professions of attorney and judge.

Recent sanctions against Google by the French Competition Authority: ad servers and related rights

Roxane Castro, Juliette Musso and Denise Gomez sartoni review the abuse of Google’s dominant position in the ad server market and the implementation of new obligations concerning related rights. > Read analysis

Universal jurisdiction: first conviction in France of a former Liberian rebel leader

On 2 November 2022, the Paris criminal court sentenced the former Liberian rebel commander Kunti Kamara to life imprisonment for acts of barbarism and complicity in crimes against humanity. This is an unprecedented decision, as universal jurisdiction had only been used to convict in the context of the 1994 genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda. > Read article

Engagements climatiques : l’ACPR et l’AMF publient leur 3e rapport

The ACPR and the AMF published on October 25 their third report on the monitoring and evaluation of the climate commitments of insurance and banking companies. It focuses on the governance of these commitments. In addition, the two Authorities also reviewed the findings of their policies regarding fossil fuels. > Read article

Essilor fined € 81 billion by the French Competition Authority for discriminatory trade practices

Essilor Internal S.A.S. was fined €81,067,040 (including €15,400,000 jointly with EssilorLuxottica S.A., its parent company) for imposing restrictions on online sales operations as regard to the deliveries, advertisements and warranties of its corrective lenses. The French Competition Authority considers that these conducts constitute discriminatory trade practices since they hindered the development of online sales, limited their accessibility for consumers and encouraged the persistence of high prices. (Decision 22-D-16 of 6 October 2022 regarding practices implemented in the optical lenses sector). > Read article

E. Dupond-Moretti announces a softening of the gateways between the professions of attorney and judge

The French Minister of Justice spoke this Thursday about the work of the training commission of the Conseil national des barreaux. He mentioned in particular the widening of the gateways between the professions of lawyer and judge. Indeed this initiative is rooted in a will to hire more magistrates in the years to come. > Read article

800,000 euro penalty against the company DISCORD INC.

During an audit of the company DISCORD, the CNIL found several breaches of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The company failed to define and respect a data retention period adapted to the intended purpose. It also failed to ensure data protection by default, and to ensure the security of personal data. Finally, it had not carried out an impact analysis of the data protection. To this effect, the CNIL issued on November 10, 2022, a 800,000 euros fine against DISCORD INC. > Read article