BakerHostetler (JD Supra France)

In December 2016, the French Parliament passed a landmark anti-corruption law, Law No. 2016-1691 on Transparency, Fighting Corruption and Modernising Economic Life (the “Sapin II” or the “Law”), which strengthened the country’s enforcement regime.

On November 8, 2016, France modernized its anti-corruption enforcement regime and adopted the Law on Transparency, the Fight against Corruption and Modernization of Economic Life (known in France as “Sapin II,” named after Michel Sapin, the current minister of finance). Sapin II went into effect November 10, 2016.

On February 13, 2014, BNP Paribas ("BNP"), France's largest bank, announced in its fourth quarter results that it will soon be joining the growing community of banking institutions that, within the past five years, have been sanctioned for violations of the United States Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control ("OFAC") regulations. OFAC is tasked with administering and enforcing

Following two years of litigation, France’s Constitutional Council—the highest court in France — upheld the country’s ban on hydraulic fracturing, ruling that the 2011 law “conforms to the constitution” and is not “disproportionate” to its intended effect. The constitutional challenge was brought by Schuepbach Energy LLC, a Dallas-based energy firm, after the newly-enacted ban stripped the...