FRANCE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Laetitia Tombarello and Audrey Demourgues, Bredin Prat
Over the past 12 months, two significant develop - ments in labour law have been particularly notewor - thy. The first is the expansion of the scope of class action lawsuits. The second is the introduction of a new requirement to consult the works council on sustainability matters. Both reforms result from the transposition of European regulations into French law, highlighting the growing influence of European legisla - tion on labour law in France. Reform of Class Action Lawsuits Class actions, defined as legal proceedings initiated by a representative on behalf of a group of individuals with identical or similar rights, and seeking a judg - ment applicable to all members, were first introduced into French law in 2014. Until recently, several distinct regimes existed, each limited to specific subject areas (such as consumer disputes, health or environmen - tal matters, workforce discrimination, personal data protection, or real-estate renting). Due to these con - straints, only about 35 class actions have been filed in France since 2014, with just one resulting in a finding of liability against a company. On 30 April 2025, following five years of parliamentary debate, the so-called “DDADUE Act” was enacted to align French law with recent European regulations. Among its various provisions, the Act implements a comprehensive overhaul of class action procedures, establishing a unified regime which is expected to sig - nificantly impact labour law litigation in the coming years. Expanded scope of labour law class actions The DDADUE Act considerably widens the scope of class actions in labour law, which were previously confined, with respect to employees, to cases of workplace discrimination and personal data protec - tion. Under this new Act, as of 3 May 2025, class actions may now be brought against employers for any “breach of their legal or contractual obligations” that affects “several persons under the authority of the employer”. Such class actions may seek both cessation of an alleged breach by the employer and/or compensation for resulting damages.
This broad scope expands the matters that may give rise to class actions, which could now be considered to cover the entire field of labour and social secu - rity law, including, for example, violation of a collec - tive bargaining agreement, breach of rules relating to working time, or lack of respect of employee repre - sentation regulations. Furthermore, while employees remain the primary beneficiaries, other individuals – such as interns, temporary workers, and subcontrac - tors – may also be included in a class action, provided the alleged breach concerns a provision of the French Labour Code and the employer exercises some form of authority over them. As a result, certain companies, notably digital plat - forms, which previously faced only individual claims from independent contractors seeking to have them recognised as employer or co-employer, could be particularly exposed to class actions under this new regime. Organisations entitled to initiate class action proceedings As was the case before the DDADUE Act, class actions related to labour law issues cannot be brought directly by affected individuals, but must be initiated by a qualifying organisation, the list of which has been extended to: • a representative trade union within the company (ie, a trade union which secured at least 10% of the employees’ votes in the most recent company-lev - el professional elections), or at professional branch or national level (ie, unions which secured at least 8% of the votes at the corresponding level), or, • a non-profit association belonging to a specific list of associations approved by the authorities, and subject to certain conditions, such as having been publicly active for 12 months in defending the inter - ests that have allegedly been breached, providing in its statutes for the defence of such interests, being independent, not being subject to insolvency proceedings, being independent, and providing information to the public regarding their operations and funding, or, • for actions solely seeking the cessation of a breach (ie, without compensation claims), a non-profit association, even if not on the official list of asso -
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