All publications by Claire Filliatre

On May 3, 2023, the European Commission presented proposals that represent a milestone in the fight against corruption at national and EU levels.

The proposed measures aim to prevent corruption and create a culture of integrity, criminalize all corruption offences under the United Nations Convention against Corruption, harmonize penalties across the European Union and establish a dedicated common foreign and security policy sanctions regime to target serious acts of corruption worldwide.

Two new Conventions Judiciaires d’Intérêt Public (French-style Deferred Prosecution Agreements, hereinafter “CJIPs”) have been published on the website of the Ministry of Justice, following their approval by the Paris Judicial Court on May 17, 2023.

These two CJIPs concern legal entities accused of having committed acts that could be classified as influence peddling for the first CJIP, and of having participated in irregularities in public procurement for the second CJIP.

In two judgments handed down on February 28, 2023, the summary judge of the Paris Judicial Court declared inadmissible the claims of several environmental protection associations seeking that TotalEnergies be ordered to comply with its duty of vigilance obligations under the Law No. 2017-399 of March 27, 2017.

How to effectively combat SLAPPs that can be initiated against journalists and human rights defenders when they denounce facts that are upsetting for the targeted persons?

This is the purpose of the European Commission’s proposal for a Directive “on protecting persons who engage in public participation from manifestly unfounded or abusive court proceedings” unveiled on April 27, 2022 which suggests that Member States should strengthen procedural safeguards for those against which SLAPPs are initiated.

In order to strengthen the protection of whistleblowers and prevent the risks of retaliation measures within their company, Law No. 2016-1691 of December 9, 2016 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life requires companies with more than 50 employees to set up an internal whistleblowing system.

Law No. 2022-401 of March 21, 2022 designed to improve the protection of whistleblowers requires companies to update their internal whistleblowing system.