All publications by Soulier Avocats

Parent companies are often asked to guarantee the commitments of their subsidiaries towards third parties. The guarantee can take various forms, but the most frequently used ones are the joint and several guarantee (cautionnement), the independent guarantee (garantie autonome) and the letter of intent (lettre d’intention).

The conditions of validity of a guarantee will vary depending on the type of company issuing the guarantee, i.e., limited liability company or unlimited liability company. Furthermore, joint-stock companies are specific in that the prior authorization of the board of directors, or supervisory board as the case may be, is required for the granting of any sureties, endorsements and guarantees. Other limitations may result from the nature of the guarantee itself.

In a ruling dated December 15, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) overturned the decision of a Court of Appeals that had awarded an employee compensation for dismissal without real and serious cause in excess of the so-called “Macron scale”.

Since the publication of the Ordinances of September 22, 2017 which introduced minimum and maximum amounts of compensation that can be awarded for a dismissal held without real and serious cause, French courts have dealt with numerous attempts to have this scale declared illegal, in particular the compensation ceilings determined according to the employee’s seniority within the company at the date of the termination of his/her employment contract.

As the reform of French legal provisions governing security interests is about to come into force, the Legal High Committee for Financial Markets of Paris has just published a report on the pledge of financial securities in the European Union.

The employment contract of a part-time employee must fix the weekly or monthly distribution of working hours, failing which the part-time contract is to be reclassified as a full-time one.

In a decision dated November 17, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) strictly applied the provisions of Article L.3123-6 of the French Labor Code that lists the mandatory information to be included in a part-time employment contract.

The liability of the manager of a company placed in judicial liquidation is often sought on the basis of Article L. 651-2 of the French Commercial Code which allows the court, in the event of mismanagement having contributed to the company’s shortfall of assets, to decide that the amount of this shortfall shall be borne, in whole or in part, by said manager.

In a decision issued on September 8, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) has clarified the application of this Article to a manager who did not convene the shareholders to regularize the situation of the company, the shareholders’ equity of which had fallen below half of the share capital.

The change of an employee’s place of work at the same time as the implementation of a lay-off plan constitutes an abuse of the employer’s power of direction.