Law No. 2014-1545 of December 20, 2014, contains two types of provisions. While some of these provisions introduce changes in several areas, particularly social law, real estate law, corporate law, tax law, and consumer law, many others in these same areas simply authorize the government to legislate by decree.
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When no date is specified, the provisions presented entered into force on December 22, 2014.
I. Simplification of Social Law Rules.
Law No. 2014-1545 authorizes the government to take measures by decree relating to:

  •  To the development of simplified title systems and single windows for the declaration and payment of social protection contributions (Art. 1);
  •  To the "definition and use of the notions of day" of adaptation of the quota of days in the legislation of labour and social security (Art. 2);
  • The conditions of wage portage, as well as the principles applicable to the person being carried, the umbrella company and the client company (Art. 4);
  • Under the conditions under which a part-time employee, working less than twenty-four hours per week, can request to obtain a working time greater than or equal to this threshold (Art. 5).

The order concerning the first measure must be issued within six months of the promulgation of the law (Art. 58 II). The other measures must be the subject of orders within nine months of the promulgation of the law (Art. 58 III).
Among the provisions adopted, it should be noted that the legislator has made permanent the fixed-term contract for a specific purpose (Art. 6). This contract had been introduced on an experimental basis until June 26, 2014, by Article 6 of Law 2008-596 of June 25, 2008, on the modernization of the labor market. Regarding the personal account for the prevention of occupational hardship, the law stipulates that the government will submit a report to Parliament on the implementation of this account by June 30, 2015 (Art. 8).
II.
real estate law primarily aim to rewrite certain rules introduced by Law No. 2014-366 of March 24, 2014, known as the ALUR Law.
The government is thus authorized to issue ordinances to simplify the information requirements for buyers stipulated in Articles L.721-2 and L.721-3 of the French Construction and Housing Code (CCH), created by the ALUR Law (Art. 15). This ordinance must also be issued within nine months of the law's publication (Art. 58 III).
Article 46 of Law No. 65-557 of July 10, 1965, is also subject to further amendments. The reference to " living space " introduced in the first sentence by the ALUR Law is removed. Similarly, the reference to " living area " is removed from Article L.721-2 4° of the French Construction and Housing Code (CCH).
The legislator amended the wording of the second sentence of Article 46 of the Law of July 10, 1965, recently adopted by the ALUR Law, and reinstated the previous wording. Thus, the reference to " area of ​​the private portion " is replaced by the sole reference to " area ."
Article L.551-1 of the CCH, created by the ALUR Law, concerning the application of the penalty of prohibition on purchasing real estate as part of the fight against substandard housing, is amended as of January 1, 2016. When the notary verifies whether the buyer is subject to such a conviction, it is now specified that the association for the development of notarial services, to which the notary refers, requests a copy of the buyer's criminal record extract (bulletin n°2). The association then informs the notary whether the buyer has been convicted of such a crime.
III. Simplification of Company Law
The majority rule applicable to the decision to relocate the registered office in limited liability companies is relaxed. From now on, this relocation is no longer subject to the decision of shareholders representing at least three-quarters of the shares, but only half of the shares (Art. L.223-18 8° of the Commercial Code).
The law authorizes the government to take, within nine months of the law's publication (Art. 58 III), by means of an ordinance (Art. 23), measures concerning:

  • The reduction of the minimum number of shareholders in unlisted public limited companies and the adaptation of the rules of administration, operation and control of these companies.
  • The introduction of a simplified liquidation procedure for commercial companies that have a small amount of assets and debts and employ no employees.

IV. Measures to simplify tax law
The law of December 20, 2014, authorizes the government to take measures, by decree, to simplify:

  • The tax reporting obligations applicable to legal entities subject to corporation tax as well as to sole proprietorships and companies subject to income tax (Art. 27).
  • The reporting obligations of companies regarding levies and fees on games and bets mentioned in the general tax code and the social security code in order to allow them to declare these levies in the same manner as value added tax (Art.29).

These orders must be issued within six months of the publication of the law (Art. 58 II).
V. Measures relating to consumer law.
The provisions of the law of December 20, 2014, applicable to consumer law, mainly concern contracts concluded remotely and off-premises.
When concluding a contract remotely, it is now specified that the copy of the contract provided by the professional is a "dated" copy (Art. L.121-18-1 of the Consumer Code). The withdrawal period is clarified for several types of contracts:

  • The right of withdrawal can be exercised from the conclusion of the distance contract and off-premises sale of goods and provision of services including the delivery of goods (Art. L.121-1 2° of the Consumer Code).
  • When the contract for the acquisition or transfer of real estate is preceded by a preliminary contract or a unilateral or bilateral promise of sale concluded off-premises, the withdrawal period runs from the conclusion of the preliminary contract or the promise.
  • For contracts relating to the construction of real estate, the period runs from the date of their conclusion.

Law No. 2014-344 of March 17, 2014, known as the Hamon Law, created Article L.121-34-2 of the Consumer Code. This article prohibits the use of masked numbers for telephone solicitation. The law of December 20, 2014, stipulates that failure to comply with this rule is punishable by an administrative fine not exceeding €3,000 for individuals and €15,000 for legal entities. The same penalty applies to failure to provide information for contracts concluded at trade fairs and exhibitions (Article L.121-98-1 of the Consumer Code) and for contracts relating to liquefied petroleum gas (Article L.121-14 of the Consumer Code).
Finally, Articles L.121-36-1 to L.121-41 of the Consumer Code relating to promotional lotteries, as amended by the Hamon Law, are repealed. Article L.121-36 is amended to stipulate that promotional lotteries are lawful provided they are not unfair.

 

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