Introduction

Scope of application

Compliance program

Protection of whistleblowers

Audit and sanctions

Rules arising from the Sapin II Law

EU law

French law

Rules derived from competition law

Sapin II Law/Competition

Scope ratione personae

Scope ratione materiae

Scope

Development of plan

Measures included in plan

Inclusion in management report

Vigilance plan

Injunctions

Civil liability

Sanctions

Duty of vigilance (devoir de vigilance)

CSR programs

Reporting

Communication

Reporting and communication

Judicial sanctions

Risk to reputation, strategy and stability

Corporate Social Responsability (CSR)

Middlenext Code

IFA Corpus

AFEP - MEDEF Code

Types

Principles of governance

Principles incorporating CSR values

Principles

Comply or explain

Binding force

Private codes of conduct

Compliance

The legislator also intended to punish the corruption of persons who do not hold public office. Article 445-1 of the Criminal Code covers active bribery of private individuals, which consists in anyone offering or transferring, without right, offers, promises, gifts, presents or benefits of any kind to a person who, without being a public official, entrusted with a public service mission or invest …

Persons not holding public office

The legislator also intended to punish the corruption of persons who do not hold public office. Article 445-1 of the Criminal Code covers active bribery of private individuals, which consists in anyone offering or transferring, without right, offers, promises, gifts, presents or benefits of any kind to a person who, without being a public official, entrusted with a public service mission or invested with a public elective mandate, carries out a professional or social activity, a management function or work for a natural or legal person or for any organization whatsoever. Article 445-2 punishes passive corruption of private individuals, which consists in the fact of a person who does not hold public authority soliciting or agreeing, without right, to offers, promises, gifts, presents or benefits of any kind, for himself or for another person. In both cases, the purpose is either to provoke, or to “thank for”, the accomplishment or abstention from accomplishing an act of one's activity or function, or facilitated by it, in violation of one's legal, contractual or professional obligations .

The following have been held  guilty of corruption of private individuals: the manager of a subcontracting undertaking who offers to organize a trip for an employee of the contractor, in order to secure the loyalty of the subcontracting operations , or a property trader who offers a lawyer a sum of money to convince his client to withdraw from a legal action for rescission of a sale for inadequate consideration , the president of a hunting federation, who accepts the delivery of valuable objects from a company with which his federation has concluded a contract for computer maintenance and the acquisition of equipment , the president of a soccer club who makes promises and gifts to players of an opposing team, to get them to “raise their game” and “help him win a match” , the members of a company responsible for marketing plots of land and building shells, who solicit and obtain from each purchaser of a plot of land the payment of a sum of money in cash, as a condition for concluding the sale , the bank clerk who receives commissions on checks cashed against fictitious invoices , or the airline company which hires and remunerates, by devious means, numerous commercial intermediaries to assist it in its commercial negotiations with private customers, with a view to obtaining contracts .

For an example of the absence of incentive elements and of any breach of a legal, contractual or professional obligation, see Cass. crim. 9 December 2008, LawLex202200010385JBJ. Cf. for bribery of an employee, Cass. crim. 19 June 2013, LawLex202200001441JBJ.

Cass. crim., 19 May 2010, LawLex202200009675JBJ.

Cass. crim., 7 March 2012, LawLex202200010651JBJ.

Cass. crim., 26 January 2011, LawLex202200009684JBJ.

Cass. crim., 4 February 1997, LawLex202200010751JBJ.

Cass. crim., 25 February 2015, LawLex202200009681JBJ.

Cass. crim., 7 April 1986, LawLex202200010749JBJ.

CJIP, 29 January 2020, LawLex202300011594JBJ.

Compliance

11. Persons not holding public office

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

11. Persons not holding public office

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise