Legal Insights

The 2021 Glasgow Climate Change Conference or COP26, organized by the United Nations, took place from November 1 to 13, 2021 in Glasgow (United Kingdom) as it had to be postponed for one year due to the COVID-19 health crisis.

The COP26 resulted, on November 13, in the adoption of the “Glasgow Climate Pact”, which notably allows to finalize the rules of application of the Paris Agreement but falls short of the ambitions that had been initially set.

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.

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.

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.

For the first time, on October 14, 2021, the Paris Administrative Court ordered the French State to repair the consequences of its failure to combat climate change.

The Court ordered that the overrun of the greenhouse gas emissions cap set by the first carbon budget (2015-2018) be compensated by December 31, 2022 at the latest.

The decision issued on February 20, 2021 by the Commercial Chamber of the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme court) rightly recalls that the failure to convene the statutory auditor to the ordinary general meeting does not result in the nullity of the deliberations made during such meeting.