Week of 25-31 August 2026
Legislation and case law: French and European Union law.
A note on the period. The past week fell in the middle of the judicial vacation. No judgment of the Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation, no contentious decision of the French Competition Authority, no decision of the AMF Enforcement Committee and no judgment of the Court of Justice was delivered between 25 and 31 August 2026. The Official Journals Nos. 0196 to 0202 (24 to 30 August) contain no text directly concerning company law, commercial law, competition law, financial law or insolvency. The news of the week is therefore mainly about entry into force: on 26 August, the second stage of the commercial lease provisions of the law simplifying economic life came into effect. The rest of this note flags analyses published this week on earlier texts and decisions.
I. Legislation
The key event of the week: entry into force, on 26 August 2026, of the rules on returning and transferring commercial lease security
Law No. 2026-403 of 26 May 2026 simplifying economic life, Article 62 (Article L. 145-40 of the French Commercial Code). The third stage of the timetable for applying the commercial lease reform came into force on 26 August 2026, three months after promulgation. It has two sets of consequences, both applicable to current leases, with no amendment needed to trigger them.
First, the return of security at the end of the lease. Where the keys are handed back on or after 26 August 2026, the landlord must return the security deposit within three months at most, deducting only sums still owed and duly substantiated. Other security (bank guarantee, first-demand independent guarantee, pledge, mortgage) must be released and the related documents returned within six months, and the landlord must arrange the releases itself. This reverses the burden of initiative: until now, it was up to the tenant to chase the release.
Second, a change of ownership of the leased premises. For any sale, gift or succession concerning the premises on or after 26 August 2026, the obligation to return sums paid as security passes automatically to the new landlord. The classic dispute, in which the tenant sued the former owner who had collected the funds, no longer arises. Other guarantees lapse automatically, and the transferor has six months to arrange releases and hand over the documents.
Practical significance. Any sale of a let building signed since 26 August must now treat the security deposit as a transferred liability: lease audit, inventory of security, price adjustment or an assumption clause in the deed. On the landlord’s side, a return timetable must be built into end-of-lease procedures, or delay will be paid for in interest and litigation.
The full timetable of Law No. 2026-403 for commercial leases. Since 28 May 2026: monthly rent payments as of right at the tenant’s simple request, including for current leases, unless there are undisputed arrears (Article L. 145-32-1, a mandatory provision through Article L. 145-15); recognition of the “tunnel” indexation clause, which caps the annual change in the commercial rent index (ILC) symmetrically, upwards and downwards (Article L. 145-38-1); stricter conditions for suspending the termination clause, which now depends on the tenant’s ability to pay its rent debt and on full payment of current rent being resumed before the first hearing (Article L. 145-41). For leases entered into or renewed on or after 26 May 2026: all sums and security required from the tenant are capped at one quarter’s rent, with no interest in its favour.
On the side, but in the same law: for sales of businesses and disposals of shareholdings conferring a majority of the capital entered into on or after 27 July 2026, the minimum period for informing employees in advance is cut from two months to one, the ceiling of the civil fine falls from 2% to 0.5% of the sale price, and in companies with at least fifty employees and a works council (CSE), direct information of employees is replaced by information and consultation of the CSE.
Texts published in the Official Journal from 24 to 30 August 2026
The harvest is thin and peripheral. In decreasing order of interest for businesses, the following texts deserve mention.
Law No. 2026-813 of 24 August 2026 to protect minors from the risks of social media use (JORF No. 0197 of 25 August). The published text is not the one that was voted: in Decision No. 2026-911 DC of 14 August 2026, the Constitutional Council struck down Article 1, the flagship measure (a ban on registration for under-15s and generalised age verification), holding it disproportionate in light of freedom of expression and communication and insufficiently protective of privacy, since it imposed age checks on all users, adults included. The direct consequence for platform operators: no new age verification obligation comes into force. Only the provisions on phone use in schools and on awareness campaigns remain. Compliance teams that had planned an age verification project can put it on hold, without closing it: the subject is coming back through EU law.
Decree No. 2026-816 of 24 August 2026 amending Decree No. 2019-768 of 24 July 2019 on the accessibility of online public communication services to people with disabilities (JORF No. 0198 of 26 August). The subject is considered technical; in reality it is a liability issue, since digital accessibility obligations apply to economic operators above certain turnover thresholds and carry administrative penalties.
Order of 20 July 2026 laying down how the placing on the market of food for specific groups is to be notified to the DGCCRF (JORF No. 0198 of 26 August). A market-entry formality for the food manufacturers concerned.
Decree No. 2026-832 of 29 August 2026 setting the funding levels for apprenticeship contracts (JORF No. 0202 of 30 August). It has a direct effect on the employer cost of contracts signed at the start of the academic year, through the funding levels applicable to the OPCO skills bodies.
The summer law that will take effect this autumn: the emergency agriculture law
Law No. 2026-796 of 18 August 2026 on the emergency protection and sovereignty of agriculture (JORF of 19 August), published after Decision No. 2026-914 DC of 14 August 2026 of the Constitutional Council (partial non-conformity with interpretive reservations). Strictly speaking, the law falls outside the period, but commentary on it began this week and it shapes the 2027 commercial negotiation round now opening. Three points concern business law directly: the extension of the “price tunnel” mechanism, so far limited, to all agricultural sectors; the possibility of restricting imports of products containing residues of substances withdrawn or not renewed in the Union, together with a new national inspection unit for imported food, an instrument against unfair competition whose compatibility with EU law and WTO rules will need watching; and stronger consumer information on the origin of meat, fish and shellfish in processed products, which calls for a review of labelling and supplier terms and conditions. On quite another front, the court may now compensate project developers (agricultural, industrial, energy, development) who are victims of abusive legal challenges.
II. Case law
Cour de cassation: vacation silence
No judgment of the Commercial Chamber was delivered or put online between 25 and 31 August 2026. The last judgment published in the Bulletin is still that of 8 July 2026 (Com., No. 25-11.256). Hearings and online publication are expected to resume during September. There is nothing to comment on here, and it would be artificial to pretend otherwise.
Competition Authority: nothing contentious, ten merger decisions
No penalty decision or opinion was issued during the week; the most recent are still Opinion 26-A-05 of 17 July 2026 on competition in the artificial intelligence agents sector, and interim measures decisions 26-MC-01 and 26-MC-02 of 8 July 2026 (press publishers’ neighbouring rights). Merger control, on the other hand, kept busy: the outcome of ten decisions was published between 24 and 28 August (Nos. 26-DCC-169 to 26-DCC-178), all in phase 1 and without commitments. Two are worth noting.
Decision 26-DCC-173 (outcome published on 26 August): acquisition of sole control of Bigben Connected and Bigben Connected Polska by Modelabs, consolidating the distribution of mobile accessories and products; the only transaction in the series outside the food sector.
Decisions 26-DCC-169 to 26-DCC-172 and 26-DCC-174 to 26-DCC-178: the steady continuation of takeovers of food retail businesses alongside ITM Entreprises and the Association des Centres Distributeurs E. Leclerc. Nothing doctrinal, but a useful indicator of the pace at which the network of independent stores is being reshaped.
AMF: no Enforcement Committee decision
No decision was delivered during the week. The most recent is still that of 28 July 2026, against a financial investment adviser and its two managers for breaches of their professional obligations.
Litigation still under discussion: seizure of business email by competition authorities
CJEU, Grand Chamber, 16 July 2026, Joined Cases C-258/23 to C-260/23, ECLI:EU:C:2026:585. The judgment continues to feed summer commentary and is worth putting in context, since it now sets the European standard for dawn raids. On a Portuguese reference, the Grand Chamber holds, first, that business emails exchanged between employees and managers through the company’s email system are “communications” protected by Article 7 of the Charter, regardless of the professional nature of the message, of whether it was read, unread or deleted, and of internal IT use policies, with protection extending to traffic data under Article 8. It holds, second, that Articles 7 and 8 do not preclude a seizure made without prior judicial authorisation, provided there is a strict legal framework and full ex post judicial review, allowing in particular the admissibility of the evidence gathered to be assessed. The Court adds a technical requirement that will weigh in practice: indexing prior to searching must use keywords defined by reference to the predetermined subject of the investigation.
The French reading. The procedure under Article L. 450-4 of the Commercial Code, which requires an order from the liberty and custody judge, places French law above the minimum standard so defined. The point of vigilance lies elsewhere: the effectiveness of the remedy where the Authority bases its objections on documents from a criminal search, passed on under Article L. 463-5 of the Commercial Code, without the person concerned having been able to challenge the lawfulness of that search. The Commercial Chamber found the question serious and referred it to the Constitutional Council on 14 January 2026 (Com., No. 25-40.031); the decision is still awaited. To date, it is the procedural issue most likely to change dawn raid practice this autumn.
Legal scholarship published over the summer
For ongoing cases, three studies published in August on earlier case law are worth noting: sham legal entities and the double standard of proof applied by the courts of appeal and the Commercial Chamber (9 August); the transfer of obligations (joint liability, merger, change of control) in the Commercial Chamber’s case law from 2023 to 2026 (9 August); and subordination agreements and subordinated debt, from the angle of enforceability in insolvency proceedings and the treatment of classes of affected parties (20 August). The last is the most directly useful for restructuring practitioners.
To watch
Resumption of Commercial Chamber hearings and publications in September. The Constitutional Council’s decision on the priority question referred on 14 January 2026 concerning the Competition Authority’s use of documents from criminal searches. The opening of the 2027 commercial negotiation round under the law of 18 August 2026, particularly as regards the “price tunnel”. Implementing decrees expected for Law No. 2026-403 (list of craft activities for the definition of craft premises, rules for establishments open to the public under 300 m², time limits for compensating business losses).
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