Sabine Naugès
Sabine Naugès counsels clients on all aspects of public law, including administrative and regulatory, competition and constitutional law. Among other high-profile clients, Sabine has advised telecommunications companies France Télécom and Orange on regulatory matters in cases before administrative and commercial courts, and before EU and French competition authorities. She also regularly represents major companies with interests in a wide range of industries, including aerospace, energy, oil and gas, and public health care, before the French government and in litigation, in a range of regulatory and administrative matters.
Extended Screening of Foreign Investment in France: A Risk of Incompatibility with Company Law?
By Sabine Naugès and Professor Rémi Dalmau on May 7, 2024
Posted In France, Foreign Investment
Control of foreign direct investments in France (FDI) has been steadily tightened since 2014. The provisions of Articles L. 151-3 and R. 151-1 et seq. of the French Monetary and Financial Code (CMF), as supplemented by the Decree of December 31, 2019, organize this national screening mechanism based on the prior authorization of certain investments...
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European Union Criminalizes Violations of Sanctions
By Sabine Naugès, Raminta Dereskeviciute and Michal Chajdukowski on May 2, 2024
Posted In Sanctions & Export Control
As announced in our last Quarterly Sanctions Update, on April 12, 2024 the Council of the European Union adopted a directive criminalizing sanctions violation at the European Union (EU) level. In this post, we provide a summary of the key provisions of this directive, to be followed by a second post focusing on its potential...
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First Dawn Raid Carried Out by The European Commission | Another Investigative Tool Deployed Under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation
By Stéphane Dionnet, Sabine Naugès and Hendrik Viaene on Apr 26, 2024
Posted In Foreign Investment, Foreign Subsidies, Public Procurement
Since the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (FSR) entered into force on July 12, 2023, the European Commission has increasingly started to wield the powers granted to it. It opened its first in-depth investigation into a public procurement process in Bulgaria in a case involving locomotives on February 16, 2024 (read more in our previous post here)...
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How to Determine Which Investors Should be Disclosed Under the Foreign Direct Investment Screening Regime in France, the United Kingdom and the United States
By Sabine Naugès, David J Levine and Max Küttner on Apr 15, 2024
Posted In Foreign Investment
Where a transaction is carried out by an investment fund, the question of which investors should be disclosed under Foreign Direct Investment will eventually surface. We consider the necessary disclosures under French, US and UK FDI screening. There is significant potential for divergence as to how new(er) FDI rules are applied in practice, in particular...
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Quarterly Sanctions Update | Q1 2024
By Raminta Dereskeviciute, Sabine Naugès and Michal Chajdukowski on Apr 8, 2024
Posted In Sanctions & Export Control, Trade Control & Customs
The EU and the UK continue in their efforts of tightening sanctions against Russia, particularly in the context of the second anniversary of the Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the sudden death of the Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. In this Quarterly Sanctions Update, McDermott Sanctions and Export Controls team summarizes the most recent and...
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Conflict of Interest in Drug’s Evaluation by the European Medicines Agency
By Sabine Naugès and Dr. Deniz Tschammler on Apr 4, 2024
Posted In Compliance
In a judgment dated March 12, 2024, the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “Court of Justice“) was asked to clarify the scope of the principles that must be respected in the procedure conducted by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the evaluation of medicinal products. Background The appeal to the Court of...
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French Ministry of Economy Publishes List of New Dual-Use Items & Technologies Subject to Approval Before Export
By Sabine Naugès on Mar 25, 2024
Posted In Sanctions & Export Control
Regulation (EU) 2021/821 of May 20, 2021 is known as the “Dual-Use Regulation” and its purpose is to establish an EU regime governing the export, brokering, technical assistance, transit and transfer of dual-use items. According to Article 9 of this regulation, EU Member States must, for reasons of public security (e.g. prevention of terrorism, protection...
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European Economic Security Strategy
By Sabine Naugès on Mar 22, 2024
Posted In Foreign Investment, Outbound Investment
A Step Towards Regulating Outbound Investment in the European Union On June 20, 2023, the European Commission and the High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy published a Joint Communication on a European Economic Security Strategy. The strategy highlighted that new economic security risks are emerging as a result of rising geopolitical tensions and the...
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Public Tenders Under the Foreign Subsidies Regulation: What We Have Learned So Far
By Sabine Naugès and Stéphane Dionnet on Mar 22, 2024
Posted In Foreign Subsidies, Public Procurement, Transport & Logistics
The Foreign Subsidies Regulation (the FSR) sets out rules and procedures for investigating bids in the context of public procurement procedures (PPPs) if foreign financial contributions (FFCs) and tender value thresholds are exceeded. In the case of a mandatory notification, the European Commission (EC) will determine if foreign subsidies granted to the bidder would distort...
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Strengthening Foreign Investment Screening in France
By Sabine Naugès on Mar 6, 2024
Posted In Foreign Investment, Energy
Decree no. 2023-1293 of December 28, 2023, on foreign investment in France came into force on January 1, 2024. The purpose of the decree is to continue the monitoring of non-European investors exceeding the threshold of 10% of voting rights in companies listed on a regulated market, introduced by Decree No. 2020- 892 of July...
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