FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: Thierry Marembert, Cécile Labarbe, Aaron Bass and Céline Serpagli, Kiejman & Marembert
• the issues on which the lobbying activities focused, in particular their purpose (ie, a description of the issue on which the activity focused) and the area of intervention; • the type of public decisions targeted (laws, regula - tory acts, certain public procurement and conces - sion contracts, local public decisions, etc); • the type of lobbying activities carried out (organis - ing meetings, sharing expertise with the aim of persuading others, etc); • the categories of public officials with whom the lobbyist has communicated (members of the Gov - ernment, elected representatives, etc); and • lobbying expenses (remuneration, costs related to the organisation of events, expert fees, gifts and benefits granted to public officials, etc). Offences punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment ( délits ) are subject to a six-year limitation period, run - ning from the day on which the offence is committed. However, for certain categories of offences, the start - ing point of the limitation period can be postponed: • continuing offences – where the unlawful situation persists over time, the six-year period runs only from the day on which it comes to an end. This is for example the case of unlawful taking of interest; and • complex offences – where the actus reus is made up of several distinctive actions, the six-year limita - tion period runs only from the day on which the last constituent action is carried out. 3. Scope of Application 3.1 Limitation Period Furthermore, French criminal law provides that when the offence is inherently occult or deliberately con - cealed, the limitation period only runs from the day the offence becomes “apparent” (and can therefore be prosecuted). This deferred starting point is, however, subject to a cut-off of 12 years after the starting point of the limitation period and cannot, in any event, be postponed.
In practice and in most cases, the Supreme Court has construed misappropriation of public funds, unlawful taking of interest, bribery and influence-peddling as inherently occult. 3.2 Geographical Reach of Applicable Legislation French criminal law primarily applies to offences com - mitted on French territory. However, it also has notable extraterritorial reach. French courts may assert juris - diction in a range of situations. Offences Committed on the French Territory French criminal law applies to any offence committed on the French territory, regardless of the nationality of the perpetrator or the victim. An offence is deemed to have been committed in France if any constituent element of its actus reus happened on French territory. Case law tends to con - strue the latter broadly. For instance, French criminal courts have asserted jurisdiction in one complex inter - national corruption case based on the fact that one of the schemes had been discussed during one meeting held in Paris. French criminal law also applies to any act of com - plicity on the French territory in relation to an offence committed abroad, provided that (i) the offence is pun - ishable under both French and the law of the state where the acts were committed, and (ii) the offence has been established by a final judgment of the for - eign court. Recent reforms have significantly limited the scope of these requirements for corruption and related crimes. French courts may now prosecute persons who, on the French territory, act as accomplices to offences of bribery or influence-peddling committed abroad by a French national, a resident of France, or a person car - rying out all or part of its economic activity in France, without the need for a final foreign judgment. The same exemption applies to accomplices in France to certain offences affecting the financial interests of the European Union (including bribery and money laun - dering). In those cases, French criminal law applies even if the acts are not punishable in the state where they occurred.
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