Legal Insights

On September 12, 2023, the European Commission presented a series of initiatives to provide short-term relief to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), boost their long-term competitiveness, and strengthen fairness in the business environment across the Single Market.

The contemplated measures include new proposals for a Regulation on late payments in commercial transactions and for a Directive establishing a head office tax system for SMBs, as well as additional tools to support SMBs throughout their entire business life cycle.

“If the power of interpreting laws be an evil, obscurity in them must be another, as the former is the consequence of the latter. This evil will be still greater, if the laws be written in a language unknown to the people; who, being ignorant of the consequences of their own actions, become necessarily dependent on a few, who are interpreters of the laws, which, instead of being public and general, are thus rendered private and particular.”

(Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments).

Although the scientific community has been warning of the risks associated with the use of poly- or perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) since the early 2000s, there was until now no regulations governing discharges from industrial facilities.

As part of the PFAS 2023 2027 action plan presented earlier this year by the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and Territorial Cohesion, a ministerial order relating to the analysis of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances in water discharges from classified facilities that are subject to the so-called authorization regime was published on June 20, 2023.

Since September 1, 2023, a new social regime applies to the mutual termination indemnity.

The mutual termination indemnity is no longer subject to the 20% flat-rate contribution but to a single contribution of 30%.

On July 10, 2023, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

This decision concludes that the USA ensures an adequate level of protection – comparable to that of the European Union – for personal data transferred from the European Union to US companies under the new Framework.

As such, personal data can henceforth flow safely from the European Union to US companies adhering to the new Framework, without having to put in place additional data protection safeguards.

In two judgments handed down on June 16, 2023, the Paris Administrative Court recognized for the first time the existence of a causal link between the bronchiolitis and ear infections affecting two children and the French State’s failure to take action in terms of air pollution.

These two judgments have been issued in a context marked by increased sanctions against the French State in environmental matters.