France: a new law on companies goes into force
Pursuant to the publication on the Official Gazette on 23 May, the law adopted by the National Assembly on the growth and conversion of companies, also known as the “Loi Pacte”, was put into force. The key points of the new law are the streamlined red tape and support for companies, supporting research and development of SMEs and privatisations. In order to streamline red tape, the goal of the French Government is to set up a single digital platform by 2021 to enable companies to register their activities and legal personality directly online, thus streamlining the whole administrative process. This centralised platform will also make it possible to collect information on companies in a single database and make it accessible online. Other measures concern simplifying the obligations connected to the declaration of starting up a business activity by offering a flat rate that will be progressively lowered over the next five years, reducing and simplifying the obligations connected to the companies’ threshold of employees, and harmonising the legal certification standards for corporate accounting.
In order to stimulate SMEs to participate in public tenders, the minimum percentage paid out by the Government to winning SMEs will increase from 5 to 20% of the value. With reference to the measures to support the R&D of SMEs, the law tightens the ties between public research and enterprises by reducing the social security payments for employees managing a business project.
Lastly, the Loi Pacte contains provisions enabling the sale of public shareholdings in the following companies: Aeroport de Paris (manager of the Charles De Gaulle and Orly Airports), Engie (an energy company with 65 billion euros in revenue) and Francaise des Jeux (holds a monopoly on gambling).
Once finalised, these sales are expected to contribute to finance the “Fund for industry and innovation” launched in January 2018 by the Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire, with the aim of investing in new technologies.
