Si, en l’état d’une autorisation administrative de licencier un salarié protégé accordée à l’employeur par l’inspecteur du travail, le juge judiciaire ne peut, sans violer le principe de la séparation des pouvoirs, se prononcer sur le caractère réel et sérieux de la cause de licenciement, il résulte de l’article L. 631-17 du Code de commerce que lorsqu’un licenciement a été autorisé par une ordonnance du juge-commissaire, le caractère économique du licenciement et la régularité de l’ordonnance du juge-commissaire ne peuvent être discutés devant l’administration.

Introduction

A significant factor in the success of restructurings negotiated in French out-of-court processes (whether ad hoc mandates or conciliations) is the absolute confidentiality of the discussions conducted by a company and the relevant stakeholders (usually creditors, existing or new sponsors or key clients) under the supervision of a court-appointed insolvency practitioner.

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:

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.

Europe has struggled mightily during the last several years to triage a long series of critical blows to the economies of the 28 countries that comprise the European Union, as well as the collective viability of eurozone economies. Here we provide a snapshot of some recent developments regarding insolvency, restructuring, and related issues in the EU. 

HR Colsultancy

JOBS ACT - Fixed term employment contract: potential fines for those companies with 20% or more of their employees on fixed term contracts

Current proposed amendments by the Jobs Act include (i) replacing the fine for conversion of fixed term contracts exceeding the 20% limit into open-ended contracts with a fine to be paid to the employee and (ii) the clarification of the reintroduction of basic training for apprentices.