Whistleblower protection: towards a sanction of France at the European level?

France’s response to the Européen Commission’s formal notice on the obligation to transpose Directive 2019/1937 of October 23, 2019 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, more commonly known as the Whistleblower Directive. > Read article

Strengthening the effectiveness of the French “Blocking Statute”

Highlight on the 18 February 2022 decree and the 7 March 2022 order, which strengthen the competence of the Strategic Information and Economic Security Department (Service de l’information stratégique et de la sécurité économiques “SISSE”) in order to improve the effectiveness of the French “Blocking Statute”. > Read analysis

#Banking and Financial Criminal Law: Transfer of criminal liability following a merger or acquisition

In a ruling of April 13, 2022, the Court clarified the nature of the control that must be performed by judges on prosecutions against absorbing companies after its historic decision of November 25, 2020, regarding the transfer of the criminal liability of corporate entities. > Read analysis

Inadmissibility of a memorandum submitted to the investigating chamber on the nominative professional e-mail address of a court clerk.

In a decision dated 27 July 2022, the criminal chamber of the French Court of cassation ruled that a memorandum submitted to the investigating chamber on the professional e-mail address of a court clerk, and not on an e-mail address declared as eligible for electronic criminal communication by the French Ministry of Justice to the National Bar Council, was inadmissible (Cass. Crim., 27 July 2022, n°22-83237) . > Read article

#Anti-corruption: French-Israeli businessman Beny Steinmetz back in front of Geneva judges.

The corruption case against Beny Steinmetz is reopened on appeal. Convicted in 2021 in Switzerland for bribery of public officials in the Guinea mining sector to 5 years in prison and 52 million euros in fines, the Franco-Israeli will be defended by a new defense team that will seek to justify the legal obtaining of mining permits. > Read article

The Conseil d’Etat draws the profile of a “trusted AI” in public service.

On 30 August 2022, the French Consel d’Etat presented its study on artificial intelligence (AI) in public services, entitled “Artificial intelligence and public action: building trust, serving performance“. This study highlights that no field of public action is immune to AI,and highlights five families of uses. The Conseil d’Etat believes that AI could be used to improve the quality of public service and recommends the adoption of a regulatory framework for this purpose. > Read article