Fighting foreign bribery: The OECD Working Group's Phase 4 report on France distributes good and bad marks

Jean-Luc Soulier, Esq.

The OECD Working Group on the Implementation of the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions adopted the France Phase 4 report on December 9, 2021.

This is an opportunity to recall the origin of this Convention before briefly presenting the good and bad marks distributed by the monitoring team in charge of assessing France’s progress in the fight against foreign bribery, and underlining its key role in the defense of the values of the civilized world.

Towards a European corporate due diligence duty

Laure Marolleau, Esq.

While France is holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, the European Commission proposed on Wednesday, February 23, 2022 a legislation to establish a corporate due diligence duty for companies, their contractors and their subcontractors.

Companies will be required to identify and, where necessary, prevent, end or mitigate the adverse impacts of their activities on human rights and the environment.

The Guerlain judgment on everyone's lips…

Sandrine Petoin, Esq.

Guerlain almost had its G lipstick case rejected as a three-dimensional trademark, but the judges of the General Court of the European Union were more flexible in their assessment of its distinctiveness than the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

The shape of the lipstick, comparable to a ship’s hull or baby carriage, was considered sufficiently arbitrary, as the General Court of the European Union considered this shape unusual, easily memorable and uncommon on the market. It also found that the rounded contours of the tube prevented it from being positioned vertically as is customary, a clarification related to the use of the product that may nevertheless be surprising.

Working time: Focus on the fixed number of working days per year (“forfait jours”)

Fabien Pomart, Esq. and Matthieu Blaschczyk, Esq.

The so-called annual forfait jours working time arrangement (i.e., a contractual arrangement according to which working time is counted on the basis of a fixed number of working days per year) allows the employer to derogate from the legal working time of 35 hours per week and the payment of overtime hours.

The formalities and requirements for setting up this type of working time arrangement as well as the obligations associated therewith are summarized in an infographic available on our website.

French Supreme Court rules that the usufructuary is not a shareholder

Florence Grangerat, Esq.

It is clear that family-owned sociétés civiles immobilières (non-commercial property holding companies) are an inexhaustible source of litigation, particularly with regard to the rights of the usufructuary.

The ruling handed down by the Third Civil Chamber of the Cour de Cassation (French Supreme Court) on February 16, 2022 provides another significant example of this as it was published in the Bulletin of the Cour de Cassation.

Customs’ inspection at the premises of postal service providers and express freight companies is not conditioned to the finding of prior evidence of the commission of an offence

Victor Trouttet, Esq.

Imagine that customs officers enter your premises to carry out checks on potential offences without any prima facie evidence concerning these hypothetical offences.

The customs’ right of inspection provided for under Article 66 of the French Customs Code allows this practice.