The recent news

Watch the video commenting on the decision of the Commission des sanctions of the Autorité des marchés financiers - AMF (French Financial Market Authority Sanctions Commission).

Read the decision.

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In 2015, a document supposedly emanating from the Vinci company reached the Bloomberg media announcing unexpected catastrophic results. The two journalists who received it immediately published it without checking anything, the Vinci listed shares losing more than 18%. It was a rude forgery, which a basic check would have established, a check which the journalists had not done.

4 years later, the Bloomerg company is punished for the breach to "disseminate false information" on the financial market, by a decision of the Sanctions Commission of the Autorité des Marchés Financiers (French Financial Markets Authority) of December 11, 2019.

The company being sued argued that it was up to journalists to be accountable and not to itself, because on the contrary the firm had implemented both detection software and a code of conduct, even though there was no legal rule constraining it. In consequence, it would not possible to pursue it.

But the AMF Sanctions Commission stresses that, independently of this, it is a general rule of ethics for journalists that obliges them to verify the authenticity of the documents they publish, which they did not, whereas an elementary check would have allowed them to measure that it is a rude forgery.

In addition, the Sanctions Commission refers to the European Regulation on market abuses which in its article 21 targets the special status to be reserved for press freedom and the special status of journalists, but associates this ethical obligation to verify documents . However, the Sanctions Commission notes that this obligation, which was targeted by both the journalists' ethics and the reference text of Financial Law, was completely ignored by the two journalists. It is therefore up to the press agency to be accountable and to be punished.

However, the media entreprise maintained that the balance between the principle of freedom of the press and the principle of freedom of opinion on the one hand and the principle of the protection of the financial market and of investors against false information disseminated requires an interpretation of the European Union Law, which must oblige the Sanctions Commission to ask a preliminary question to the Court of Justice of the European Union.

The Sanctions Commission dismisses this request because it considers that the European texts are "clear", which allows the Sanctions Commission to interpret them itself. And precisely the European Regulation on market abuse in its article 21 provides for the exception in favor of the press and journalists but compels them to respect their ethics, in particular the verification of the authenticity of documents. In this case, they did nothing. They are clearly the authors of a breach attributable to the company.

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In a less clear case, one could consider that this balance between two principles, both of public interest, is delicate and that an interpretation by the Court of Justice would always be useful.

Indeed and more fundamentally, does Financial Law remain an autonomous Law, putting first the objective of the preservation of the integration of the financial market and the protection of investors or is it the advanced point of an Information Law protecting everyone against the action of any "influencer" (category to which Bloomberg belongs) consisting in disseminating inaccurate information (notion of "misinformation")?

And that is not so "clear" ....

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Complete reference : Frison-Roche, M.-A., Legal Theory of Risk Mapping, center of Compliance Law, 2019. 

This is an English translation of an article published in French, Théorie juridique de la cartographie des risques, centre du Droit de la Compliance, Recueil Dalloz, 2019, p.

This article written in English is based on a working paper, written also in English, with additional developments, technical references and hypertext links. It is accessible  here.

Summary. The act of mapping risks is not currently defined by Law. It is only described in special laws. While risks mapping is central to preventing in Ex Ante the occurrence of crises or behaviors from which the occurrence is excluded, no legal regime is available, due to the lack of a legal definition available. This legal definition is proposed here in 5 stages, starting from special laws and specific cases to go towards a general conception. Risk mapping then appears as a concern for others taken care of willingly or by force by crucial operators, through a new subjective right: the “right to be alarmed”, the map being the structural counterpart of the character of the whistleblower. Two articulated systems of Compliance Law.

Read below the article written in English below. 

Reference Frison-Roche, M.-A., Le droit de la compliance pour réguler l'internet  (Compliance Law to Regulate the Internet), Interview given in French to Sylvie Rozenfeld, Expertises, December 2019, p.385-390.

Summary. Law seems increasingly powerless to stem the social disorder generated by the Internet. For Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Law professor and specialist in Regulatory Law, the solution is to be found in Law, and more particularly in Compliance Law. This specific Law is already applied in the banking and finance sector, or in the area of ​​personal data. As it has done for green finance and through the GDPR, Europe could impose a compliance system which internalizes concern for the individual in large digital operators. It is up to them to put in place the means and bear the cost, such as the right to be forgotten erected by the CJEU. Marie-Anne Frison-Roche does not offer anything revolutionary, she is content to take elements of positive law that already exist and to correlate them.

Read the interview (in French)

Read the presentation of the official Report for the French Government about which this interview is given:: The contribution of Compliance Law to the Governance of Internet. 

► Full Reference : M.-A. Frison-Roche, "Théorie juridique de la cartographie des risques, centre du Droit de la Compliance (Legal Theory of Risk Mapping, center of Compliance Law)", D.2019, chronique Compliance, p. 

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► English Summary of this article : The act of mapping risks is not currently defined by Law. It is only described in special laws. While risks mapping is central to preventing in Ex Ante the occurrence of crises or behaviors from which the occurrence is excluded, no legal regime is available, due to the lack of a legal definition available. This legal definition is proposed here in 5 stages, starting from special laws and specific cases to go towards a general conception. Risk mapping then appears as a concern for others taken care of willingly or by force by crucial operators, through a new subjective right: the “right to be alarmed”, the map being the structural counterpart of the character of the whistleblower. Two articulated systems of Compliance Law.

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Read the article, published in French.

Read its translation in English. 

Read the English Working Paper  on which this article is based, working paper with additional developpments, technical references and hypertext links. 

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Référence complète : Frison-Roche, M.-A., Le maniement de la propriété intellectuelle comme outil de régulation et de compliance, in Vivant, M. (dir.), Les Grands Arrêts de la propriété intellectuelle, 3ième éd., 2019, 9-11, p.43-53.

This contribution is written in French.

Summary: 

Intellectual Property, which comes from the State and is incorporated into public policy, can be designed not to reward the creator a posteriori, but to encourage others to innovate. It is then an Ex Ante regulatory tool, an alternative to the subsidy. If private copying is an exception, it is not in relation to the principle of Competition but in an insertion into a system of incentives, starting from the costs borne by the creator of the first innovation: the rights holder is then protected , not only according to a balance of interests involved but in order not to discourage innovative potentials and the sector itself. (1st decision) ;

The sectoral policy then permeates Intellectual Property, used to regulate a sector, for example that of the drug. While it is true that a laboratory wishing to market a generic drug did not wait for the expiration of the patent for the original drug to do so, it is however not relevant to sanction this anticipation by a few days because the investments made by the holder of the Intellectual Property right have been made profitable by this one and because the public authorities favor the generics in a concern of public health (2nd decision).

Systemic interest prevails and therefore Internet service providers have to bear the costs of blocking access while they are irresponsible because of the texts. This obligation to pay is internalized by Compliance Law because they are in the digital system best able to put an end to the violation of Intellectual Property rights which the ecosystem requires to be effective. (3rd decision).

Read the contribution (in French).

Read the Working Paper written in English having served as a basis for this contribution and endowed with additional developments, technical references and hypertext links. 

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Référence : Frison-Roche, M.A., participation au groupe d'experts mis en place par le Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel sur la lutte contre la désinformation en ligne et les nouvelles compétences du CSA à cet égard, mise en place le 13 décembre 2019.

C'est au titre de ses pouvoirs issus de la loi du 22 décembre 2018 relative à la lutte contre la manipulation de l'information que le Conseil Supérieur de l'Audiovisuel (CSA) intervient.

C'est à ce titre qu'elle a déjà émis une recommandation en 2019 en ce qui concerne les informations émises ou relayées par les grandes plateformes de contenus dans le cadre des élections européennes.

C'est encore à ce titre que ce groupe d'experts, dirigé par Michèle Léridon, Commissaire dans le Collège du CSA, a été mis en place. 

Ce groupe pluridisciplinaire doit aider le groupe interne au CSA et issu transversalement de ses différents services, dirigé par Lucile Petit dans son travail, notamment l'élaboration d'un premier bilan, lequel est prévu par la loi précitée. 

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Le cycle de conférences Les outils de la Compliance se déroulant entre novembre 2019 et juin 2020 coordonné par The Journal of Regulation & Compliance et toutes les Universités partenaires comprend une conférence plus particulièrement consacrée au thème suivant "Les incitations, Outils de la Compliance ".

Voir les autres thèmes, autres dates et autres manifestations particulières, constituant le cycle dans son ensemble. 

Conférence – Débat 

 jeudi 12 décembre 2019, 15h– 19h30

Université Toulouse Capitole

2 rue du Doyen Gabriel Marty 31042 Toulouse cedex 9

Sous la direction scientifique de Lucien Rapp, Professeur à l’Université Toulouse Capitole, Directeur scientifique de la Chaire SIRIUS, Directeur de l’IDETCOM.

La technique de l’incitation prend une importance grandissante comme outil des politiques et stratégies de conformité (compliance). Elle s’inscrit logiquement dans le mouvement récent d’assouplissement de la légalité (soft Law) et utilise les ressorts profonds de la psychologie humaine. Elle constitue déjà un complément - sinon un substitut - de la méthode traditionnelle dite du Command and Control, qui repose sur des normes impératives et sur leur sanction, le plus souvent pénale. Elle en compense les insuffisances (inefficacité de la sanction) et en corrige les excès (externalités négatives : coûts d’agence, passager clandestin, confiscation de l’information, utilité collective). Nouvelle forme de régulation du marché, cette Compliance par incitation associe davantage les opérateurs à l’élaboration de la règle comme à son respect et s’adresse à leur sens des responsabilités (Comply or Explain, RSE, notamment).

Ont pris notamment la parole :                                                       

• Marion Larouer, Maître de conférences à l’Université Toulouse Capitole
• Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Professeur titulaire de Droit de la Régulation et de la Compliance, Sciences Po
• Hubert Tardieu, Conseiller du CEO, ATOS
• Philippe Clerc, Inspection générale - Chief Officer, Compliance and Ethics, CNES
• Laurence Calandri, Maître de conférences à l’Université Toulouse Capitole – Directrice du M2 Droits des médias

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Ce cycle de manifestations est organisé par le Journal of Regulation & Compliance (JoRC) (consulter les partenaires scientifiques du cycle), dont le thème général est Les outils de la Compliance.

Se reporter aux modalités d'inscription pour les conférences. Si une conférence est organisée par une Université particulière, elle peut faire l'objet de modalités particulières. Se reporter alors à celles-ci. 

Consulter le calendrier des manifestations.

Revenir à la présentation générale du Cycle de conférences.

 La participation à chaque séance est validée au titre de la formation continue des avocats (2h).

Cette conférence sert également d'appui à la réalisation d'un ouvrage plus global portant d'une façon générale sur Les outils de la Compliance, dans lequel les conférenciers ont vocation à contribuer par un article. L'ouvrage Compliance Tools sera publié en même temps.