International Law

The French Anticorruption Agency (Agence Française Anticorruption, hereinafter “AFA”) published its 2020 annual report in March 2021.

This provides the opportunity to review the key figures of its audit activities in one infographic, four years after its creation by the Law of December 9, 2016 on transparency, fight against corruption and modernization of economic life, known as the “Sapin II” Law.

While these figures help us identify a trend concerning the types of audits carried out and the entities concerned, the AFA could in the future extend these audits by deciding to subject more companies to the compliance scheme, as it seems to envisage in its latest guidelines.

On January 12, 2021, the French Anti-Corruption Agency published its new guidelines which will serve as the reference framework for its investigations, effective from July 13, 2021.

These new guidelines, which are both more demanding and pragmatic because they have been adapted to take into account the inspections and audits carried out by the AFA since the entry into force of the former guidelines, deserve, in our opinion, the full attention of entities subject to Article 17 of the Sapin II Law.

On June 2, 2020, the French Minister of Justice sent to all competent public prosecutors a circular for immediate application specifying France’s “criminal justice policy in the fight against international corruption”.

This circular sets out guidelines for legal action at all stages of criminal proceedings, from the information gathering stage to the determination of the mode of prosecution.

After the agreements between the European Union and Canada and Japan, it is now the turn of the European Union – Singapore free trade agreement to enter into force. This agreement – the first free trade agreement between the European Union and a Member State of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations – marks a further step towards the European Union’s external trade openness.

Expanding internationally is most of the time critical for businesses wishing to break into other markets. However, international expansion is not without posing a number of risks, in particular legal and financial ones, that need to be identified and addressed upstream when designing the overall expansion strategy. While the choice of the most appropriate legal […]