FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: William Julié, Amélie Beauchemin and Camille Gosson, WJ Avocats
2.3 Licensing 2.3.1 Derogation
and therefore prevented the offence from being committed and, where applicable, made it possible to identify the other perpetrators or accomplices, is exempt from punishment; and • the sentence will be reduced if the perpetrator of an offence notified the administrative or judicial authority and thus made it possible to put a stop to the offence, to prevent the offence from caus - ing damage or to identify other authors or accom - plices. • At EU level, Article 9 of Directive (EU) 2024/1226 provides for two different mitigating circumstances, and requires that member states implement at least one in their legal system: • when the offender provides the competent authori - ties with information they would not otherwise have been able to obtain, helping them to identify or bring to justice the other offenders; and • when the offender provides the competent authori - ties with information they would not otherwise have been able to obtain, helping them to find evidence. French law is reluctant to take mitigating circumstanc - es into account in general, and already provides for the first mitigating circumstance required by the Direc - tive. The second one, which is a lot broader, was not integrated into French law when the Directive was implemented. 2.2.6 Strict Liability Under Article L. 542-2 (formerly Article 459), sanctions violations are formal offences in French law, which (unlike material offences) are constituted by the con - duct alone, without proof of intent to violate sanctions. The French sanctions regimes therefore operate on the basis of strict liability. Strict liability does not apply to all offences under French law, but it does apply to sanctions-related offences, which are treated as formal offences. In other areas of law, criminal liability generally requires mens rea (intent or negligence), unless otherwise specified.
France applies the derogations provided by the Coun - cil of the EU’s Decisions and Regulations in its differ - ent sanctions regimes. Currently, most of the sanctions-related matters con - cern Russia. In this regard, Council Decision 2014/512/ CFSP and Council Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 of 31 July 2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine provide for several derogations to its sanctions, including: • the sale, supply, transfer or export of dual-use goods and technology – or the provision of related technical or financial assistance – for non-military use and for a non-military end user, when such goods or technology or the related technical or financial assistance are either intended to aid co- operation between the EU, the governments of member states and the government of Russia in purely civilian matters, or are intended to aid inter - governmental co-operation in space programmes; • the provision of insurance or reinsurance after 20 June 2024 to any legal person, entity or body that is incorporated or constituted under the law of a member state with regard to its activities outside the energy sector in Russia; • the provision of financial assistance when neces - sary for the urgent prevention or mitigation of an event likely to have a serious and significant impact on human health and safety, or on the environment; and • the authorisation for an aircraft to land in, take off from or overfly the territory of, the EU for humani - tarian purposes. Such derogations must be requested by the persons seeking them from the national competent authorities – ie, the French Treasury, the Directorate General for Enterprise or the French Customs, depending on the derogation sought. 2.3.2 Provision of Legal Services By adopting Council Regulation (EU) 2022/2474 of 16 December 2022, amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view
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