Sanctions 2025

FRANCE Law and Practice Contributed by: William Julié, Amélie Beauchemin, Camille Gosson and Elena Moreno, WJ Avocats

• 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 of Russia’s actions in destabilising the situation in Ukraine, the Council of the EU adopted a general pro - hibition of the provision of legal services to the gov - ernment of Russia or legal persons, entities or bodies established in Russia, as enshrined in Article 5 (n)(2) of Regulation 833/2014. However, at the time, it already provided for some derogations, and others were added by Council Reg - ulation (EU) 2023/1214 of 23 June 2023 amending Regulation (EU) No 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia’s actions in destabilising the situation in Ukraine. The most common ones can

be found in paragraphs 5, 6, 9 (a) and 9 (b) of Regula - tion 833/2014, as follows: • the provision of services that are strictly necessary for the exercise of the right of defence in judicial proceedings and the right to an effective legal remedy; • the provision of services that are strictly necessary to ensure access to judicial, administrative or arbi - tral proceedings in a member state, as well as for the recognition or enforcement of a judgment or an arbitration award rendered in a member state; and • the provision of services that are strictly neces - sary for the setting up, certification or evaluation of a firewall that removes control, by a sanctioned natural or legal person, over the assets of a non- listed legal person, entity or body incorporated or constituted under the law of a member state, and which is owned or controlled by the former, as long as no further funds or economic resources accrue to the benefit of the listed natural or legal person, entity or body. In December 2022, the Paris Bar ( Ordre des avocats à la Cour de Paris ), supported by the Geneva Bar, filed an action for annulment contesting the ban on providing non‑litigious legal advice to the Russian state and entities in Russia (case T-798/22). By a judg - ment dated 2 October 2024, the court ruled the chal - lenges were unfounded and dismissed the annulment request. Notably, it held that (i) Articles 7 and 47 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU protect access to legal advice only in the context of judicial administrative or arbitral proceedings; (ii) non-litiga - tion is outside this scope; and (iii) the ban includes suf - ficiently broad exceptions. The applicants appealed this decision before the CJEU (case C-866/24). 2.4 Reporting The Council of the EU imposes reporting obligations in its sanctions regimes, whereby such reports are to be made to the national competent authorities. The Council also provides the possibility to address such information directly to the Commission of the EU. In the context of Russia, it has created reporting obli - gations in both its individual and sectoral sanctions regimes.

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