FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: William Julié, Amélie Beauchemin and Camille Gosson, WJ Avocats
2.2 Enforcement 2.2.1 Enforcement Responsibilities
trafficking (Article L. 562-2-2 CMF); and sanctions circumvention (Article L. 562-3 CMF). In addition, Article L. 151-2 CMF provides the general statu - tory basis empowering the French Government to restrict financial relations with foreign countries in order to safeguard the national interests. Under these regimes, France can impose asset freezing, restrictions on transactions and embargoes. • EU: As an EU member state, France is bound by the restrictive measures decided by the Council of the EU that concern either natural or legal persons subject to sanctions such as asset freezing or travel bans, or to sectors of activity (eg, finance or fertilisers). • UN: As an EU member state and member of the UN Security Council, France is also bound by the restrictive measures decided at UN level, which, like those of the EU, relate either to a geographical area – targeting natural persons and legal entities – or to themes such as nuclear non-proliferation. 2. Overview of Regulatory Field 2.1 Primary Regulators The primary regulators for sanctions activity in France are: • the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs; and • the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Within both ministries, sub-entities handle the differ - ent aspects of sanctions: • the French Treasury handles financial matters, including the delivery of authorisations for transac - tions of otherwise frozen assets; • the Directorate General for Enterprise handles dual-use import and export; and • French Customs implement sanctions on French territory. They are therefore the competent authorities for enforcing sanctions and granting derogations, and the primary interlocutors on sanctions in France.
In the EU, member sta t es are responsible for enforc - ing the sanctions created by the Council of the EU. In France, the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs is responsible for the general coordination of EU restric - tive measures. The Ministry of Economy of Finance, and in particular the French Treasury, is responsible for all matters related to frozen assets, and financial and sectoral sanctions. The Direction générale des douanes et des droits indirects (DGDDI) is competent for physical exports; and the Direction générale des entreprises (DGE) handles dual-export goods. For access to French ports for Russian vessels, requests for authorisations must be submitted to the préfet de département and the director of the port; information can be requested to the Direction générale des affaires maritimes , de la pêche et de l ’ aquaculture (DGAMPA)”. 2.2.2 Breaching Sanctions At French Level At criminal level, Article L. 542-2 of the French Cus - toms Code (formerly Article 459) criminalises the “fail - ure to comply with the restrictions on economic and financial relations provided for under European Union law pursuant to Articles 75 or 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and under inter - national treaties and agreements duly approved and ratified by France”. These provisions criminalise sanctions breaches regardless of origin – national, EU or UN. Article L. 542-5 of the Customs Code criminalises inciting, in writing, through propaganda or advertis - ing, the commission of any of these offences, whether or not such incitement was acted upon. Potential penalties for breaching sanctions for natural persons include: • five years’ imprisonment; • confiscation of the corpus delicti; • confiscation of the means of transport used to commit the offence; • confiscation of property and assets that are the direct or indirect proceeds of the offence; and
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