Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (JD Supra France)

On December 20, 2020, the French government published a circular detailing the practical rules employers need to follow in order to test employees for COVID-19 now that tests for the virus are more available. These rules focus on three principles: (i) prioritizing employees that show symptoms or instances of contact; (ii) maintaining the voluntary nature of testing; and (iii) protecting doctor-pat

Le 25 novembre 2020, la Cour de cassation a opéré un revirement de jurisprudence important pour la pratique des affaires, en décidant que la responsabilité pénale d’une société absorbée, de nature à donner lieu à une peine d'amende ou de confiscation, pouvait désormais être transmise à la société absorbante dans le cadre d'une opération de fusion-absorption entre sociétés commerciales. Les due...

On September 29, 2020, the French government published the 2021 Finance Bill, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 crisis and an expected 10.2% reduction in GDP in 2020.

As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the French government implemented a very generous furlough system designed to protect companies and avoid redundancies, i.e., terminations of employees for economic reasons.

On July 23, 2020, the French government issued decree nº 2020-892 of July 22, 2020 (the Decree), and a ministerial order of the same date (together, the Interim Rules), which lowered the applicable threshold that triggers French foreign investment control for investments by non-European investors in certain French publicly listed corporations. The Interim Rules were initially announced by the...

On April 28, 2020, the French government announced the outline of its plan to end the lockdown measures currently in force, scheduled for May 11, 2020. (This date may be postponed if the hospitalization and death rates related to the coronavirus epidemic have not sufficiently decreased as expected by May 11, 2020.) The outline included…

On April 29, 2020, the French Minister of the Economy (the Minister) announced that French foreign investment rules will be adopted with the policy goal of protecting French strategic assets in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. A forthcoming decree is expected to lower the applicable threshold that triggers French foreign investment control for investments by non-European investors in certain

On April 13, 2020, the French government announced that the lockdown measures in force since March 16, 2020, will remain in force until at least May 11, 2020. The government is still working to produce a road map for how to end the lockdown, continuing to determine the approach. Additionally, on April 17, 2020, the parliament voted to expand the budget for the state of emergency and increased it...

To mitigate the risks faced by French financial markets during this unprecedented period of disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) announced on April 15, 2020, that it will renew the ban on net short positions until May 18, 2020. Before selling any securities subject to the ban, investors must ensure that the quantity of securities sold does not...

French courts are closed for the unknown duration of the COVID-19 lockdown. Businesses facing immediate difficulties may still file for emergency or restructuring proceedings. Filings must be made electronically and hearings will be conducted remotely.

On December 31, 2019, the French government issued decree nº 2019-1590 (the 2019 Decree), together with an administrative order of the same date (the Order), that comprehensively reshaped French foreign investment rules (as amended, the New Rules) and introduced significant reforms to the French foreign investment review process. The 2019 Decree and the Order are the last steps of a reform that...

The COVID-19 pandemic, which coincides with the annual shareholders’ meetings season, raises significant concerns regarding the ability of companies, in particular listed companies, to convene their board of directors’ and shareholders’ meetings.1 Meetings of more than 100 persons were prohibited in France as of March 14, 2020, and a lockdown has been enforced throughout the French territory...

In anticipation of a potential economic slowdown resulting from the lockdown announced by the French government on March 16, 2020, the French Parliament approved an emergency law on March 22, 2020, called the "Emergency Bill To Combat the COVID-19 Crisis" (the Law).

On March 18, 2020, the French government published a legislative package of emergency measures aimed at tackling the COVID-19 crisis. It includes an Amending Finance Act for 2020 (which includes a state guarantee of up to €300 billion to secure the repayment of loans made by banks between March 16, 2020, and December 31, 2020), a bill providing for certain emergency measures and a bill extending...

As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout France, the government has adopted lockdown measures limiting the movement of individuals throughout the country, as well as ordering the temporary closure of certain businesses. The government also has announced financial measures aimed at helping businesses cope with this unprecedented situation.

As widely anticipated, French and U.K. regulators recently published guidance detailing their expectations for corporate cooperation in enforcement investigations. Both sets of guidance demonstrate further alignment of those jurisdictions’ deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) regimes with long-standing practices in the U.S., albeit with some notable areas of divergence.

On November 30, 2017, the Institut des Hautes Etudes sur la Justice (IHEJ) and Skadden hosted a roundtable at the Cercle de l’Union Interalliée in Paris to discuss new perspectives on the Sapin II Act and cross-border investigations. The panelists included Charles Duchaine, head of the French Anti-Corruption Agency (the AFA or the Agency); Eliane Houlette and Eric Russo, head and deputy head of...

In a move that could signal a new phase of government enforcement in France, on November 27, 2017, French authorities published a Convention judiciaire d’intérêt public (CJIP) with HSBC Private Bank Suisse SA (HSBC PB), the first such agreement under the Sapin II law that was enacted in December 2016 and provided for the use of CJIPs by French prosecutors.

In the months following the election of President Emmanuel Macron, who is perceived as pro-business, as well as a parliamentary election in which the new president’s party won the majority, companies and entrepreneurs have expressed optimism that corporate France may at last embark on ambitious and long overdue reforms to reduce the amount of red tape that they believe constrains the French...

A new French law titled “Transparency, the Fight Against Corruption and Modernization of the Economy,” which was published in the French Official Journal on December 10, 2016 (known as Sapin II, as it was named after the French minister of finance, Michel Sapin), aims to bring landmark changes to France’s anti-corruption laws by strengthening the detection and prevention of corrupt business...

Because many publicly listed companies in France have significant or controlling shareholders, public tender offers have the potential to create conflicts of interest within the board room. These conflicts arise whether the offer comes from an existing shareholder wishing to take the company private or from a third party that first secures a controlling position. In these scenarios, minority...

In 2015, the French double-trial system for market abuses will be referred to the Constitutional Council for an assessment of the system’s constitutionality under the double jeopardy rule (or, using the Latin maxim, the ne bis in idem principle). Should the current system be held unconstitutional, this would mark the end of concurrent criminal and administrative sanctions against violators of...

Successive investigations in France following U.S. prosecutions and settlements have led to court challenges on the grounds of double jeopardy, a trend that will only increase as more countries scrutinize the same conduct in multijurisdictional investigations. Under Article 113-9 of the French Criminal Code (and Article 692 of the Code of Criminal Procedure), a French citizen cannot be prosecuted

On May 15, 2014, the French government published a decree extending its veto rights over foreign investments in French strategic sectors (the New Decree). The New Decree has been dubbed the “Alstom Decree” by the media, as it comes in response to the French government’s concerns regarding the $16.9 billion bid by General Electric for the energy business of Alstom. However, the scope of the New...

Background - In the wake of the current financial crisis, predicting earnings is challenging. The media is flooded with profit warnings. Boards throughout Europe are faced with a difficult question: Must a company post a profit warning as soon as sales slide and financial objectives are shrouded in doubt or can the company wait until it posts its regularly scheduled report?

On May 14, 2013, the French Autorité de la Concurrence (Autorité) issued a decision imposing a fine of €40.6 million on French company Sanofi-Aventis France (Sanofi) for an abuse of dominance in the market for the cardiovascular drug clopidogrel.

On May 6, 2012, François Hollande was elected president of France on a platform that includes a proposed ban on stock options, “except for start-ups.” Qualifying stock options granted by French and foreign companies to their employees in France currently benefit from a favorable tax and social security regime, compared to the hefty social contributions payable on regular cash bonuses....