The French Parliament approved the bill on transparency, the fight against corruption and the modernization of economic life (projet de la loi relatif à la transparence, à la lutte contre la corruption et à la modernization de la vie économie), also known as "Sapin II" (after the Finance Minister Michel Sapin who proposed it as a continuation of the previous law No. 93-122 "On the prevention of corruption and transparency of economic life and public procedures" prepared on his own initiative).
The key novelty of the bill will be the introduction of the practice of pre-trial settlement of cases related to the commission of corruption offenses. Currently, the possibility of using deferred prosecution agreements (DPA) is available in the U.S. and the U.K. The new French legislation will allow the use of similar measures and speed up lengthy court procedures.
Under the draft law, a company suspected of violating anti-corruption laws may be required to implement appropriate measures to prevent corruption or pay a fine of up to 30% of its average annual turnover for the three preceding years, while additional sanctions may be imposed on the organization and its management for failure to implement anti-corruption measures: a fine of up to EUR 30,000 (RUB 2 million) or imprisonment for up to two years for individuals, a fine of up to 30% of its average annual turnover for the three preceding years, or a fine of up to 30% of its average annual turnover for the three preceding years.
The initial version of the draft law raised concerns of the State Council, the country's highest administrative court, as not providing for sufficient control by civil society. Therefore, the final approved version of the draft law was also supplemented with provisions on mandatory public discussion of the legality of entering into a pre-trial settlement agreement.
One of the important innovations of the draft law is the establishment of the obligation of organizations with more than 500 employees and an annual turnover of 100 million euros (7 billion rubles) to take measures to prevent corruption, including, among other things, the approval of a code of ethics and the establishment of mechanisms to monitor compliance with it, the creation of secure channels for reporting possible facts of corruption, the conduct of corruption risk assessments, the evaluation of counterparties, and the organization of anti-corruption training for employees. At the same time, the draft law provides for the creation of an anti-corruption training system for employees who fail to comply with the law.
At the same time, the draft law provides for the creation of an Anti-Corruption Agency (Agence française anticorruption), which will have the authority to coordinate and control, provide methodological support for preventing and combating corruption in the country, as well as monitor compliance of organizations with the requirements for the mandatory implementation of anti-corruption measures. The Agency will replace the current Service Central de Répression de la Corruption, which will have full powers to prevent and combat corruption in the country. The new state agency will have an important distinction.
The draft law also strengthens measures to protect whistleblowers by, inter alia, amending the labor law to prohibit unjustified punishment, dismissal or discrimination of an employee who reports violations of anti-corruption legislation, as well as possible sanctions for obstructing such notifications of corruption. In addition, the draft law provides for the possibility of material compensation for whistleblowers, such as payment of legal fees.
As a follow-up to the provisions of the draft law on the protection of whistleblowers, the Parliament also approved proposals to the organic law on the competence of the human rights defender and the protection of whistleblowers (proposition de loi organique relative à la compétence du Défenseur des droits pour l'orientation et la protection des lanceurs d'alerte), according to which it is proposed to entrust an independent administrative body - the human rights defender (ombudsman) - with the authority to protect whistleblowers.
UPD . Law No. 2016-1691 of December 9, 2016 on Transparency, Fight against Corruption and Modernization of Economic Life entered into force on July 1, 2017.