Introduction

Matrix organization

Mergers by absorption

Risks related to the expansion of the scope of criminal liability of legal entities

Validity conditions

Proof of delegation

Exemption from individual liability of delegator

Attribution of offense to legal entity

Delegations of authority

Criminal risk management within business organizations

Complicity in crimes against humanity

Breaches of secrecy

Personal data breaches

Theft

Extortion

Blackmail

Fraud

Misappropriation

Receiving/concealment of unlawfully obtained property (recel)

Attacks on automated data processing systems

Money laundering

Misappropriation by public official (concussion)

Corruption and influence peddling

Unlawful acquisition of an interest

Favoritism

Forgery and use of forgeries

Violation of Criminal Code

Offenses under the Monetary and Financial Code

Offenses under the Commercial Code

Environmental Code violations

Offenses arising from other codes

Types of offenses

Offenses under the Criminal Code, the Commercial Code, or the Environmental Code, Criminal procedure

White Collar Crime (en cours)

The offense of market manipulation was integrated into the French system in the former Article 419, 2° of the Criminal Code , then codified in Article L. 465-2 of the Monetary and Financial Code by Ordinance No 2000-1223 of 14 December 2000, which prohibited a single offense of ordinary law manipulation. The law of 21 June 2016 reforming the market abuse system established three offenses of market …

Market manipulations

The offense of market manipulation was integrated into the French system in the former Article 419, 2° of the Criminal Code , then codified in Article L. 465-2 of the Monetary and Financial Code by Ordinance No 2000-1223 of 14 December 2000, which prohibited a single offense of ordinary law manipulation. The law of 21 June 2016 reforming the market abuse system established three offenses of market manipulation aimed at inciting others to intervene in the market.

Article L. 465-3-1 punishes two types of behavior: on the one hand, conducting a transaction, placing an order, or adopting a behavior, or conducting a transaction that gives or is likely to give misleading indications on the supply, demand, or price of a financial instrument or that sets or is likely to set the price of a financial instrument at an abnormal or artificial level (paragraph 1), and on the other hand, placing an order or adopting a behavior using fictitious means or any other form of deception or artifice (para. 2). The dissemination of false or misleading information, defined in Article L. 465-3-2, also constitutes manipulation, as the dissemination seeks to deceive others about the situation or prospects of the issuer, the supply or demand, or the price of a financial instrument, or aims at the abnormal or artificial setting of the price of an instrument. Article L. 465-3-3 prohibits two behaviors constituting manipulations concerning benchmarks , consisting of providing or transmitting false or misleading data or information used to calculate a benchmark or information likely to distort the price of a financial instrument or asset linked to such a benchmark and adopting any other behavior resulting in the manipulation of the calculation of such a benchmark.

Market manipulations consist of maneuvers  aimed at hindering the regular functioning of a financial instruments market. The perpetrators of manipulations seek to eliminate speculative risk, inherent to markets, not by disrupting equality among investors, as insider traders do, but by conducting operations or engaging in behaviors that mislead others, in order to prompt them to act on a specific security.

Since market manipulation constitutes a formal offense, it is irrelevant whether the normal functioning of the market was actually hindered. The mere proof of schemes or practices likely to distort the market is sufficient. Indeed, any operation or order issuance that gives or is likely to give false or misleading indications on the supply, demand, or price of financial instruments must be regarded, according to the Council of State, as “price manipulation” . Thus, a fraudulent maneuver of market manipulation is constituted by artificially causing a rise in the price of a stock by making purchases on behalf of several companies that the defendant knew were linked and by conducting buy-sell operations involving increasing volumes, giving the impression of market volumes that are actually fictitious . However, while the offense of market manipulation does not require that the disputed operations have taken place on the market of the security, an excessive and artificial claim for damages during litigation, made public during the publication of the defendant's accounts and which impacted the price of its security , nor the request for sequestration of a company's dividends, in the context of shareholder litigation, for an amount exceeding the ultimately assessed damage, which led to the suspension of the security's price by the AMF , do not constitute manipulation.

Finally, it is not necessary for the defendant to have actually placed the orders themself. Therefore, giving power of attorney to a third party who, in his name and on his behalf, has carried out transactions based on a method intended to hinder the establishment of the market price and mislead others constitutes the offense of price manipulation .

Repealed by Law No 92-1336 of 16 December 1992, concerning the entry into force of the new Criminal Code and the amendment of certain criminal law and criminal procedure provisions made necessary by this entry into force.

Under Article L. 465-3-3, it refers to “any rate, index, or number made available to the public or published, which is determined periodically or regularly by applying a formula or based on the value of one or more underlying assets or prices, including price estimates, interest rates, or other real or estimated values, or survey data, and by reference to which the amount payable under a financial instrument or the value of a financial instrument is determined.”

The term “maneuvers” replaced the term “action” in the former Article 419 of the Criminal Code.

Cons. d'Et., 19 May 2017, LawLex202200011477JBJ.

Cass. crim., 28 January 2009, LawLex202200001499JBJ.

Cass. crim., 27 March 2013, LawLex202200009796JBJ.

Cass. crim., 28 September 2016, LawLex202200011052JBJ.

Cass. com., 4 November 2008, LawLex202200011482JBJ.

White Collar Crime (en cours)

178. Market manipulations

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Les notions juridiques connexes

178. Market manipulations

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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