Happy New Year!

All of us at Soulier Avocats wish you an excellent Year 2022.

Guarantee of subsidiaries’ commitments under French law

Florence Grangerat, Esq.

Parent companies are often asked to guarantee the commitments of their subsidiaries towards third parties. The guarantee can take various forms, but the most frequently used ones are the joint and several guarantee (cautionnement), the independent guarantee (garantie autonome) and the letter of intent (lettre d’intention).

The conditions of validity of a guarantee will vary depending on the type of company issuing the guarantee, i.e., limited liability company or unlimited liability company. Furthermore, joint-stock companies are specific in that the prior authorization of the board of directors, or supervisory board as the case may be, is required for the granting of any sureties, endorsements and guarantees.

Other limitations may result from the nature of the guarantee itself.

Game, set and match for the “Macron scale”

Fabien Pomart, Esq. and Matthieu Blaschczyk, Esq.

In a ruling dated December 15, 2021, the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) overturned the decision of a Court of Appeals that had awarded an employee compensation for dismissal without real and serious cause in excess of the so-called “Macron scale”.

Since the publication of the Ordinances of September 22, 2017 which introduced minimum and maximum amounts of compensation that can be awarded for a dismissal held without real and serious cause, French courts have dealt with numerous attempts to have this scale declared illegal, in particular the compensation ceilings determined according to the employee’s seniority within the company at the date of the termination of his/her employment contract.

French Climate and Resilience Law: What impact on corporate law?

Laure Marolleau, Esq.

Law No. 2021-1104 of August 22, 2021 on combating climate change and strengthening resilience to its effects, adopted on July 20, 2021 (the “Climate and Resilience Law”), was promulgated on August 24, 2021. Its provisions are inspired by the proposals of the Citizens’ Climate Convention.

The final text includes 305 Articles in 8 Titles. Some provisions came into force as soon as the Climate and Resilience Law was promulgated, while other measures will apply in 2022, 2023, 2025, up to 2034.

The article provides a focus on the new developments in corporate law.

2021 U.K. Employment Law Round-Up and Looking Ahead to 2022

This month, we are pleased to feature a contribution entitled 2021 U.K. Employment Law Round-Up and Looking Ahead to 2022 authored by Alex Denny, Emma Vennesson and Charlotte Marshall from the U.K. employment team at Faegre Drinker, a full-service international law firm.

This contribution highlights some of the key changes in UK employment law in 2021, including the end of the furlough scheme, how employers bring employees back to work and vaccination requirements, and what is to be expected in 2022, including new duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, pay gap reporting and possible legislative changes.