Law n°2015 990 for growth, activity and equality of economic opportunities, the Macron Law, was finally adopted on 6 August 2015. This law covers a wide range of matters from Sunday working, reform of regulated legal professions to driving licences.
Relaxing of the Regime for Free Shares
There is no equivalent to the English law concept of trust under French law. This means that where a syndicated loan is to be secured by French obligors, security interests must generally be granted independently to each member of the syndicate (there will be a list of pledgees contained in the security document). Any change to that group of lenders would generally entail the transfer of the French law security to each new lender.
Italian Insolvency Law Reforms
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.
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
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.
Click here to read this article in French.
It is now possible for creditors and co-contractors of insolvent companies to take certain steps in French insolvency proceedings and make certain statements “online”.
Published in the middle of August, the 2015-1009 decree of 18 August 2015 could easily have gone unnoticed, if it hadn’t been expected for several months by us “technophile” practitioners.
(ORDONNANCE Nº 2014-326 DU 12 MARS 2014 ET DÉCRET NO 2014-736 DU 30 JUIN 2014)
La nouvelle ordonnance nº 2014-326 du 12 mars 2014 modifie avec environ 120 articles essentiellement insérés dans le Code de Commerce, le régime des entreprises en difficulté. Un décret d’application publié le 30 juin 2014 a précisé les détails de ce texte.
Nous exposons ici quelques points principaux de la réforme (liste non exhaustive) :
Introduction
The ongoing financial crisis has not left France untouched. The number of company insolvencies rose considerably in 2013: while judicial rehabilitation proceedings remained stable, liquidation proceedings increased by 4% from 2012, and “safeguard” proceedings (a procedure inspired by “Chapter 11” proceedings in the United States) increased by 9%. Pre-insolvency proceedings such as judicially-supervised conciliation and ad hoc mediation reached an all-time high, 24% over 2012.