The Macron law of 7 August 2015, named after the current Minister of the
Economy, anticipated the establishment of specialised commercial courts
which will process the most complex insolvency proceedings. Currently, any
of the 134 French commercial courts can be applied to; the choice being mainly
the location of the distressed company’s headquarters. This
new arrangement aims to improve efficiency and to increase the
number of specialised judges (because in France, commercial judges are lay
judges). The aim of the reform is to save jobs. The choice of specialised
commercial court is justified by the complexity and urgency of many
matters and the need for a short response time.
On 27 November the Minister of Justice, Mrs Taubira, revealed the list
of 18 specialised commercial courts which will look after distressed
companies with more than 250 employees and with a turnover of more than
EUR 20,000,000.
The relevant courts are those in: Besançon, Bordeaux, Évry,
Grenoble, Lille Métropole, Lyon, Marseille, Montpellier, Nanterre, Nantes,
Nice, Orléans, Paris, Poitiers, Rennes, Rouen, Strasbourg and Toulouse.
One should be surprised that neither Bobigny, Créteil nor Versailles are on the list, even though they deal
with important matters and ensure that the Paris area is not under-represented.
This list (which has implications for workforce transfers and
supplementary funds allocation) has resulted in intense debates between the Chancery
(Ministry of Justice) and Bercy (Ministry of Economy), as they disagree on the
number of specialised commercial courts required (wanting to appoint
between 8 and 35 from the 134 existing courts).
We guess that the debate has not fully concluded but they must be
close to agreement as the final list has to be officially
published by decree, early in 2016, after the awaited opinion of the National
Assembly of Commercial Courts.
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