FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: William Julié, Amélie Beauchemin, Camille Gosson and Elena Moreno, WJ Avocats
to applicable criminal penalties, give rise to adminis - trative sanctions under Article L. 612-39 of the Mon - etary and Financial Code. These sanctions include: • a warning; • a reprimand; • prohibition of conducting certain transactions or other restrictions on business activities; • temporary suspension of one or more executives; • compulsory dismissal of one or more executives; • partial withdrawal of authorisation to operate; and • full withdrawal of authorisation or removal from the register of authorised entities. Furthermore, under Article L. 561-36-1 IV of the Mon - etary and Financial Code, the ACPR may impose civil financial penalties of up to EUR100 million or 10% of the entity’s annual turnover, whichever amount is greater. At the EU Level In April 2024, the EU adopted Directive (EU) 2024/1226, which created the European criminal offence of viola - tion of sanctions. In particular, Article 3 of the Directive provides for the following punishable behaviours: • making funds or economic resources available, directly or indirectly, to or for the benefit of a desig - nated person, entity or body in violation of a prohi - bition that constitutes an EU restrictive measure; • failing to freeze funds or economic resources belonging to, or owned, held or controlled by, a designated person, entity or body in violation of an obligation that constitutes an EU restrictive meas - ure; • enabling designated natural persons to enter into, or transit through, the territory of a member state in violation of a prohibition that constitutes an EU restrictive measure; • entering into or continuing transactions with a third state, bodies of a third state, or entities or bodies directly or indirectly owned or controlled by a third state or by bodies of a third state, including the award or continued execution of public or conces - sion contracts where the prohibition or restric - tion of that conduct constitutes an EU restrictive measure;
• trading, importing, exporting, selling, purchas - ing, transferring, transiting or transporting goods, as well as providing brokering services, techni - cal assistance or other services relating to those goods, where the prohibition or restriction of that conduct constitutes an EU restrictive measure, including where committed with serious negli - gence, and at least where that conduct relates to items included in the Common Military List of the European Union or to dual-use items listed in Annexes I and IV to Regulation (EU) 2021/821; • providing financial services or performing financial activities, where the prohibition or restriction of that conduct constitutes an EU restrictive measure; • providing services other than those referred to in the preceding bullet point, where the prohibition or restriction of that conduct constitutes an EU restrictive measure; • circumventing an EU restrictive measure by: (a) using, transferring to a third party, or otherwise disposing of funds or economic resources directly or indirectly owned, held or controlled by a designated person, entity or body, and which are to be frozen pursuant to an EU restrictive measure, in order to conceal those funds or economic resources; (b) providing false or misleading information to conceal the fact that a designated person, en - tity or body is the ultimate owner or beneficiary of funds or economic resources that are to be frozen pursuant to an EU restrictive measure; (c) failing by a designated natural person, or by a representative of a designated entity or body, to comply with an obligation that constitutes an EU restrictive measure to report to the competent administrative authorities funds or economic resources within the jurisdiction of a member state belonging to, owned, held or controlled by them; or (d) failing to comply with an obligation that consti - tutes an EU restrictive measure to provide the competent administrative authorities with infor - mation on frozen funds or economic resources, or information held about funds or economic resources within the territory of member states, belonging to, owned, held or controlled by des - ignated persons, entities or bodies that have not been frozen, and where such information
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