New technologies

On May 29, 2024, the European Commission unveiled the Artificial Intelligence Office aimed at “enabling the future development, deployment and use of AI in a way that fosters societal and economic benefits and innovation, while mitigating risks”.

This new Office will play a key role in implementing the European Artificial Intelligence Act, strengthen the development and use of safe and trustworthy artificial intelligence, and positioning the European Union as a leader in international discussions.

Google has agreed to pay a substantial new fine of €250 million to the French Competition Authority for failing to comply with its commitments regarding related rights (also known as neighboring rights).

Law No. 2019-775 of July 24, 2019 “on the creation of related rights for the benefit of news agencies and press publishers”, that transposed Directive (EU) 2019/790 on copyright and related rights in the Digital Single Market, aims at ensuring fair compensation for news agencies and press publishers when their contents are reused on online platforms.

France offers many advantages for businesses, in particular thanks to its central location in Europe, the 2nd largest market in the world, a well-trained workforce and one of the highest hourly productivity rates, an advantageous tax system, as well as an appreciable environmental protection.

The French Government has set up rules to screen foreign investments. This screening has not prevented a significant number of foreign projects from being authorized in 2022.

The French Government has recently been encouraging foreign investments in the industrial and green sectors.

Given the extensive development of NFTs (“Non-Fungible Tokens”, Jeton Non Fongibles or “JNFs” in French), it had become urgent to assess the current legal situation and then to propose solutions or at least avenues of reflection to control their expansion, while respecting copyright and related rights (also known as neighboring rights).

This mission was entrusted to the Higher Council for Literary and Artistic Property (Conseil supérieur de la propriété littéraire et artistique) which presented its report on the subject on July 12, 2022.

On June 27, 2017, the European Commission imposed a €2.42 billion fine on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services.

Google and its parent company Alphabet appealed against this decision before the General Court of the European Union. The Court, in a recent ruling dated November 10, 2021, upheld the European Commission’s decision.

Ordinance No. 2021-1247 published on September 29, 2021 transposes into French consumer law European Directives (EU) 2019/770 and (EU) 2019/771 of May 20, 2019 and introduces a new legal guarantee of conformity specific to digital contents and services.

The new provisions will apply as from January 1, 2022.