Legal Insights

It is clear that family-owned sociétés civiles immobilières (non-commercial property holding companies) are an inexhaustible source of litigation, particularly with regard to the rights of the usufructuary.

The ruling handed down by the Third Civil Chamber of the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) on February 16, 2022 provides another significant example of this as it was published in the Bulletin of the Cour de Cassation.

While France is holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Commission proposed on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 a legislation to establish a corporate due diligence duty for companies, their contractors and their subcontractors.

Companies will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end or mitigate the adverse impacts of their activities on human rights and the environment.

Imagine that customs officers enter your premises to carry out checks on potential offences without any prima facie evidence concerning these hypothetical offences.

The customs’ right of inspection provided for under Article 66 of the French Customs Code allows this practice.

Law No. 2016-1691 on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of the economy of December 9, 2016, commonly referred to as the “Sapin II Law”, has provided France with innovative tools inter alia to detect, prevent and punish corruption and breaches of probity.

The reinforcement of the legal arsenal to better fight corruption is one of the major pillars of this Law, and the risks associated to breaches of compliance rules can prove to be a deterrent for buyers in the context of M&A transactions.

In a decision dated December 8, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) confirmed that when the mandatory provisions of French law regarding the termination of an employment contract are more favorable, they apply to employment contracts under foreign law performed in France.

Ordinance No. 2021-1658 of December 15, 2021 relating to intellectual property rights in assets generated by software developers or inventors who are neither employees nor public agents and who have been hosted by a legal entity carrying out research (the “Ordinance”) unifies French intellectual property law with respect to service inventions.