Legal Insights

The French Competition Authority published on July 30, 2021 a notice on the method for determining fines in relation to anticompetitive practices, which repeals and replaces the previous notice dated May 16, 2011.

This new notice, based on case law and the decisions rendered by the French Competition Authority in the last ten years, draws the consequences of the transposition of the ECN+ Directive aimed at increasing the effectiveness of competition rules within the European Union.

The Health Crisis Management Law No. 2021-1040 of August 5, 2021 entered into force on August 6, 2021.

Some of its provisions make working as an employee conditional on the presentation of a vaccination certificate or a certificate of negative test result for COVID-19.

The lack of certificate is likely to entail the suspension of the employment contract.

In two decisions issued on June 23, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) recalled that “the employer having knowledge of an employee’s wrongdoings” means not only the holder of the disciplinary power but also the employee’s immediate superior, even if the latter does not hold this power himself/herself.

While many company managers fail to comply with their obligation to file annual accounts, the Cour de cassation (French Supreme Court) has decided to reinforce the applicable sanction mechanism in an unprecedented decision issued on March 3, 2021.

Recognizing for the first time the non-exclusive nature of the special provisions of the French Commercial Code allowing a third party to obtain the forced filing of a company’s annual accounts, the Cour de Cassation held that the failure to file annual accounts constituted a manifestly unlawful disturbance that justified the initiation of summary proceedings with a view to putting an end to such disturbance.

In decision No. n°21-D-11 dated June 7, 2021, the Autorité de la concurrence (French Competition Authority) imposed a 220 million euros fine on Google.

The reason: Google had engaged into discriminatory practices aimed at favoring its own adverting technologies to the detriment of the other players of the sector.

The matter was brought before the French Competition Authority by several newspaper publishers (News Corp. Inc., the Figaro group and the Rossel La Voix group) adversely affected by the practices of the digital giant.

Seeking to ensure the survival of companies that could become insolvent in the coming months due to the phasing-out of the support measures that have been put in place, the French legislator has adopted a Law introducing a new procedure, i.e., the judicial crisis recovery management procedure.

This temporary procedure is of particular interest to debtors who may be experiencing short-term difficulties caused by the COVID-19 health crisis and who wish to benefit from a simple and rapid mechanism for spreading out their current liabilities over a long period of time.