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French Corporate Environment Not So Whistleblower-Friendly

Client Alert | 1 min read | 01.09.06

It appears that the French government has a very different philosophy from that of the U.S. government when it comes to employee whistleblowers. As the attached article (http://www.crowell.com/pdf/Newsroom/ DataProtection_Dhont.pdf) discusses in depth, far from seeking to encourage and reward whistleblowing, French law is affirmatively concerned that the practice may abuse individuals' privacy and data-protection rights, with the result that in the past year, French regulators and courts have struck down Sarbanes-Oxley-inspired efforts by several American companies to implement ethics hotlines for their French employees, and the most recent French regulatory guidance permits such hotlines only under limited circumstances, and with appropriate safeguards to prevent defamation and protect privacy.

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Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.05.25

The EU’s Defense Readiness Roadmap and Omnibus: What Are the Competition Law Implications?

As part of a comprehensive plan to ensure that EU Member States achieve “defense readiness” by 2030, the European Commission has proposed a package of measures to facilitate public and private investments in defense by simplifying legal frameworks relevant to defense. In a previous alert, we provided an overview of the Defense Readiness Omnibus and examined its implications for defense procurement. In this alert, we focus on its implications for the enforcement of competition law....