France: Corporate and Company Law

Every few months, I find myself in a familiar conversation with a foreign investor who is approaching a French transaction for the first time. They have done cross-border deals before, and have done their research. They usually arrive with a version of the same assumption: that France is more complicated than it needs to be, that the regulatory environment is from a different era, and that with the right advisors, the complexity can be “figured out.”

Faisant application de la méthode d'assimilation issue de la jurisprudence Artémis, le Conseil d'État juge que des SARL unipersonnelles de droit luxembourgeois, dont le capital est divisé en parts sociales non librement négociables et dont l'associé unique ne répond des dettes sociales qu'à concurrence de ses apports, doivent être assimilées à des sociétés à responsabilité limitée de droit français dont l'associé unique est une personne physique.

France has reformed its foreign direct investment regime, broadening the scope of the 10% voting-rights threshold to capture French entities listed on nearly all regulated markets worldwide. The changes, effective August 17, 2026, extend FDI notification requirements to include major third-country exchanges through EU equivalence decisions and six specifically named markets, significantly expanding the reach of French investment screening for non-European investors.

L’idée selon laquelle la protection des données personnelles serait une simple formalité juridique dont les prestataires informatiques pourraient faire fi dans le cadre de leurs travaux doit définitivement être abandonnée.

France has enacted Law No. 2026-122, establishing a groundbreaking confidentiality regime for in-house legal counsel opinions, addressing a longstanding competitive disadvantage faced by French companies in cross-border disputes.

Understanding trademark classes is essential for effective brand protection. The Nice Classification system organizes all goods and services into 45 numbered classes, and your registration rights apply only to the classes you file in. Strategic class selection determines whether your brand is fully protected or leaves costly gaps for competitors to exploit.

The French anti-corruption landscape shifted dramatically in 2016. At the time, I was drawing on twenty years of global investigative work, from the Airbus probe to FCPA reviews across Asia and the Middle East...

France's data protection authority has issued a groundbreaking recommendation requiring prior consent for email tracking pixels, fundamentally changing how organizations can monitor email engagement.

Cet arrêt est bienvenu en ce qu’il réaffirme la nécessité d’un contrôle judiciaire effectif sur le périmètre des missions d’expertise du CSE, dans un contexte où les demandes de...