1 General Criminal Law Enforcement

1.1 What authorities can prosecute business crimes, and are there different enforcement authorities at the national and regional levels?

Business crimes are usually prosecuted by a public prosecutor. Upon completion of his/her investigation, a matter considered to have sufficient evidential support will be referred to trial, generally before the criminal court of first instance (Tribunal correctionnel) for a trial without a jury. In unusually complex or large business crime cases, the public prosecutor may refer the matter to an investigating judge ( juge d'instruction), who will then conduct an investigation (instruction) and decide whether or not to refer the matter to trial.

These enforcement authorities usually operate at a regional level, working with local police units. Certain criminal violations, such as complex criminal environmental cases, are usually handled by the public prosecutors or investigating judges of specialised offices ( pôles).

France has a national prosecutorial office dedicated to financial matters (Parquet National Financier, "PNF"). It has nationwide jurisdiction to prosecute complex financial crimes. Occasionally, when a financial case is complex and/or requires specific investigating measures, the PNF may refer the case to the investigating judges of the Paris Court.

Certain business crimes are prosecuted by administrative agencies. For instance, cartels are prosecuted by the Competition Authority (Autorité de la Concurrence); market abuses (i.e., insider trading, market manipulation and dissemination of false information) are prosecuted either by the PNF or the Financial Markets Authority (Autorité des Marchés Financiers, "AMF").

1.2 If there is more than one set of enforcement agencies, how are decisions made regarding the body which will investigate and prosecute a matter?

For most financial crimes - including corruption, influence peddling, tax fraud, money laundering, etc. - the PNF has concurrent jurisdiction with regional public prosecutors. In practice, however, complex financial cases are handled by the PNF. For market abuse crimes, the PNF has exclusive jurisdiction (i.e., regional public prosecutors cannot prosecute), provided that the case is not prosecuted by the AMF.

In any case, the PNF or the public prosecutors may decide to refer a case to an investigating judge.

1.3 Is there any civil or administrative enforcement against business crimes? If so, what agencies enforce the laws civilly and which crimes do they combat?

Several administrative agencies are responsible for administrative enforcement of certain business crimes:

  • The Competition Authority is the enforcement authority for cartels involving corporations (enforcement against individuals participating in a cartel is led by regular criminal authorities).
  • The AMF is the enforcement authority for market abuses, provided it is not enforced criminally by the PNF (see question 1.2 above).
  • The Prudential Control and Resolution Authority (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution, "ACPR") is the enforcement authority for non-compliance with anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist obligations of banks and insurance companies.
  • The French Anti-Corruption Agency (Agence Française Anti-corruption, "AFA") is the enforcement authority for non-compliance with the obligation to implement corporate compliance programmes.

1.4 Have there been any major business crime cases in your jurisdiction in the past year?

In December 2021, the Paris Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the conviction of Swiss bank UBS AG for illegal solicitation of financial services and aggravated laundering of the proceeds of tax fraud, but it reduced the fine from ?3.7 billion to ?1.8 billion.

In July 2022, McDonald's entered into a CJIP (see question 8.3 below) with the PNF and agreed to pay ?508 million to settle criminal charges of tax fraud. McDonald's also entered into a related ?767 million settlement with French tax authorities.

2 Organisation of the Courts

2.1 How are the criminal courts in your jurisdiction structured? Are there specialised criminal courts for particular crimes?

Criminal violations are divided into three categories, which determine the applicable procedures and the participants in the process. High crimes (crimes) are criminal matters punishable by imprisonment of more than 10 years. They are always prosecuted by an investigating judge and are tried before a mixed jury in a special court (cour d'assises). A new type of criminal court (cour criminelle) is, however, about to be established by the French parliament. It will have jurisdiction over high crimes punishable by up to 15 to 20 years in prison. Trial before this new court will not take place before a jury, but before a panel of five judges.

Ordinary crimes (délits) are violations punishable by imprisonment from two months up to 10 years and by financial penalties. They are generally prosecuted by a public prosecutor, with an investigating judge appointed in cases of complex violations. Ordinary crimes are tried before a criminal court of first instance without a jury (tribunal correctionnel).

Misdemeanours (contraventions) are violations punishable by financial penalties, and they are tried by a police court (tribunal de police).

Most business crimes are ordinary crimes. However, some business crimes are not treated as ordinary crimes, but rather as "administrative offences". As such, they are not tried before regular criminal courts. For instance, cartels are tried before the Competition Authority, and market abuses are tried before the AMF Enforcement Committee (unless they are subject to regular criminal prosecution by the PNF).

2.2 Is there a right to a jury in business crime trials?

Since most business crimes fall within the category of ordinary crimes, they are usually tried before a criminal court of first instance (tribunal correctionnel) before professional judges and without a jury.

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Originally published by ICLG

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.