Successor Liability And Compliance Programme

Successor companies can be prosecuted. From a criminal (penal) law perspective, the situation in an acquisition context is more or less clear – the acquirer shall face a successor liability in case of past wrongdoings of a target company. This is more or less in line with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights in case Carrefour France v. France, confirming that imposition of fines on the acquiring company for breaches of competition rules committed by the acquired company prior to the acquisition did not infringe the principle of the personal nature of penalties. Similarly, the French Court of Cassation issued a landmark decision in 2020 by which certain companies may now be held criminally liable for the prior criminal conduct of the companies they acquire by acquisition.