The effect of Hanjin's Korean rehabilitation proceedings in France has been rather limited.
Article 37 of the Act on Continuity of Enterprises states that "claims against the debtor related to services provided by its co-contractor during a judicial reorganization are to be qualified as privileged claims in a subsequent bankruptcy". Both the doctrine and case law are divided as to how this article should be interpreted, in particular whether or not only a direct co-contractor of the debtor can invoke the privileged nature of its claim. This discussion is particularly relevant with regard to claims for advance business tax, VAT claims and other tax debts.
The Macron law of 7 August 2015, named after the current Minister of the Economy, anticipated the establishment of specialised commercial courts which will process the most complex insolvency proceedings. Currently, any of the 134 French commercial courts can be applied to; the choice being mainly the location of the distressed company’s headquarters. This new arrangement aims to improve efficiency and to increase the number of specialised judges (because in France, commercial judges are lay judges). The aim of the reform is to save jobs.
Sommaire
- Le devoir de conseil du prestataire informatique
- Inopposabilité par la caution de la clause de conciliation préalable contenue dans un contrat de prêt
- Le devoir de conseil et d’information du conseil en gestion de patrimoine
- La notion d’investisseur averti
- Absence de subsidiarité de la responsabilité des professionnels du droit
- Dématérialisation des procédures collectives
Le devoir de conseil du prestataire informatique
Par jugement du 16 février 2016, rendu en matière de bail commercial, le Tribunal de Paix s’est prononcé (à notre connaissance pour la première fois au Luxembourg) sur la question des effets d’une saisie-gagerie en cas de faillite de son locataire.
Dans ce dossier, le bailleur avait pratiqué une saisie-gagerie avant la mise en faillite du locataire et a demandé par la suite après la faillite la conversion de la saisie-gagerie en saisie‑exécution ainsi que la résiliation du contrat de bail.
Contexte
En février 2012, la fermeture des hauts fourneaux de Florange divise la classe politique. Le président François Hollande s’engage alors à ce que désormais tout société voulant mettre fin à son activité en France soit soumise à l’obligation de rechercher un repreneur.
Background
In February 2012, following the highly political closing of the Florange site, a steel production plant, President François Hollande vowed that going forward any company wanting to close down its operations in France would have an obligation to first look for a purchaser.
The continued modernisation of the French economy has been a long and difficult process but, as a former British prime minister was fond of saying, “there is no alternative”.
A scandal in the world of letters and old manuscripts would not have gone unnoticed and the French case of Aristophil has lead to extensive press coverage; a massive fraud is suspected with thousands of works and hundreds of millions of euros at stake.
Summary
A new law which came into force on 8 August 2015 now permits a French court to enforce debt-for-equity swaps. Where the debtor company is in judicial reorganisation proceedings (redressement judiciaire) and if certain conditions are met, the court can either: