Legal Insights

In a ruling issued handed down on March 27, 2023, the Conseil d’Etat (French Administrative Supreme Court) upheld the cancellation of the operating license for the Gardanne biomass plant located in the municipalities of Meyreuil and Gardanne, in the Bouches-du-Rhône region, which had been ordered by the Marseille Administrative Court on June 8, 2017.

The Conseil d’Etat based its decision on the fact that the impact study had failed to analyze the environmental effects of the plant’s wood supply process.

Whereas previously the abandonment of a job by an employee could constitute a misconduct that justified a dismissal, the so-called Labor Market Law has introduced a presumption of resignation when an employee voluntarily abandons his/her job, in order to limit the use of this practice by employees.

In a ruling issued on March 1, 2023, the Conseil d’Etat (French Administrative Supreme Court) clarified the conditions under which the administrative judge exercises his/her power to stay proceedings for the purpose of correcting the defects of an environmental authorization.

In two judgments handed down on February 28, 2023, the summary judge of the Paris Judicial Court declared inadmissible the claims of several environmental protection associations seeking that TotalEnergies be ordered to comply with its duty of vigilance obligations under the Law No. 2017-399 of March 27, 2017.

French criminal law is to be interpreted strictly. This principle, enshrined in Article 111-4 of the French Criminal Code, is a principle that permeates French criminal law. It follows that criminal law rules must be applied literally.

In a ruling issued on February 1, 2023, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) recalled this principle of strict interpretation of French criminal law in a case concerning the refusal of restitution of a seized property.

In a judgment handed down on November 22, 2022, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that the provision according to which information on the beneficial owners of companies should be accessible in all cases to any member of the general public was invalid, as it considered that such open access constituted a serious interference with fundamental rights enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

In a press release dated January 19, 2023, Mr. Bruno Le Maire, Minister of the Economy, Finance, Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, decided “to maintain the general public’s access to the data recorded in the register of beneficial owners until proper conclusions regarding the judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Union are reached”.