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Full reference : Augagneur, L.-M., La compliance a-t-elle une valeur ?, JCP E, n° 40, 5 octobre 2017, p. 1522. Sciences Po students can read the article via the drive, folder "MAFR-Régulation & Compliance".

Full reference : Auby, J.-B., Le dialogue de la norme étatique et de la compliance, in Frison-Roche, M.-A. (dir.), Régulation, Supervision, Compliance, Série Régulations, Dalloz, 2017.   Read the General presentation of the book in which the article is published.   Read the other books of the sérieux in which the book is published   Sciences Po Students can read the article via the Drive, folder "MAFR-Régulation"

This working document served as a basis for a lecture given in French at the Académie des Sciences morales et politiques  (French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences) on September 25, 2017, in the cycle of conferences conducted under the presidency of Michel Pébereau,  Quelles réformes ? (What reforms?) Consult the presentation (in French) of the conference cycle (2017). It served as the basis for the publication of an article published  in French in 2018 in the book directed by Michel Pébereau Réformes et transformations (Reforms and transformations).

Qualification is the key operation in Law. For example, if one says what a bitcoin is, then one assigns to it the regime which corresponds to this "nature" that one has thus said; One could say that the "token" that it constitutes corresponds to nothing of what it existed before. In this case, their creation, storage, management, sale, loan, purchase does not correspond to any particular category that pre-existed. They therefore come under what is called "the category unnamed". It is then in a liberal system the vacuum of liberty that applies to it. In a system of liberty, it is contractual freedom, freedom which attaches to the property right, the articulation between the contract and the property being sufficient. Technology can establish such a qualification, because the risk inherent in a system of freedom is also borne by the blockchain mechanism. Indeed, by the spread of risk on the one hand, and the safety of machines on the other, there would be no need to worry, and the principle of freedom could give credence to the idea that the "token" would be a sui generis category. But central banks and financial regulators are probably not convinced and prefer to qualify by bringing the "token" to a pre-existing category, which automatically triggers the legal regime. It is well known that the art of qualification consists in choosing from among the attainable qualifications the one which will allow the application of the regime which is the most adequate to satisfy the aim which one wishes to attain. In terms of regulation, governed entirely by goals, qualification is therefore primarily a matter of strategy. Now, to affirm that the bitcoin is a sui generis object amounts to not regulating its emission, usages and intermediations, not to control those who make use of it. It amounts to taking away the merits of self-regulation. This was excluded. First of all by the Central Banks. Bitcoins and other tokens, based on the mechanical security of the blockchain, can be described as "money" when it is a matter of their acquisition to allow people to  access other goods. The central bankers retained the qualification of "currency", which does not prohibit their issuance but which justifies the application of banking Regulation. Then by the Financial Regulators. Indeed, the same tokens of securities and financial instruments can be described when they are issued by persons who issue them to raise funds, buyers bringing money not to acquire other things but in consideration of  the future value of the undertaking which issued them. On July 25, 2017, the SEC therefore classified them as securities and applied all of the financial law in order to protect these investments and the capital markets. Once again, we measure that the norm of the Regulation resides in these aims and that on the other hand its main tool is in the qualification of the various activities which are "new" only if the Regulator wants it

Référence complète: Autorité de la concurrence (French Competition Authority), Decision relating to practices implemented by the company Engie in the energy sector, Engie vs Direct Energie, 7th of September 2017, n°17-D-16 Read the decision (in French) Read the press release

General reference : Frison-Roche, M.-A. (ed.), Régulation, Supervision, Compliance (english translation: "Regulation, Supervision, Compliance"), Paris, collection "Régulations", Dalloz, 2017, to be published. This collective book is published in French but summaries of every article are available in English Acces to book purchase order Book presentation in English : Regulation. Supervision. Compliance. Three terms almost unknown to legal systems. Or at least considered as peculiar to Anglo-American legal systems: Regulation, Supervision, Compliance. So many expressions that would constitute Trojan horses by which the Common Law and american mechanisms would seize the other legal traditions to better bend European companies, especially banks, appropriating institutions, imposing strange methods. Three words by which the invasion is carried out. Through the violence of repression and penalties of compliance, by the mildness of codes of conduct and corporate social responsibility. By laws as new as strange such as in France the law known as "Sapin 2" or the law instituting a "duty of vigilance" to companies whose failure would be to have successfully deployed internationally their activities. One can have this defensive conception of Compliance, generating a "Compliance Law", produced by internalization in global economic operators of the Regulation Law, which are then subject to Supervision by Regulators, even though these firms are not regulated, as the Compliance does extend beyond supervised sectors (banks and insurance companies). We can (and maybe must) have a more welcoming, and therefore more offensive, concept of Compliance. This can be the crucible of a relationship of supra-national Trust between these operators and regulators, the former being able to contribute as the latter to serving goals that all exceed them and whose fight against corruption and money laundering are only examples. In this way, the issue is the construction of the European Compliance Law.   Authors : Jean-Bernard Auby, Jérôme Bédier, Alain Bénichou, Jean-Michel Darrois Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, Marie-Anne Frison-Roche, Benoît de Juvigny, Jacques de Larosière, Bruno Lasserre, Arnaud de La Cotardière, Jean-Claude Marin, Didier Migaud,, Yves Perrier, Jean-Marc Sauvé.   Voir la présentation du cycle de conférences sur lesquelles s'est construit l'ouvrage.   Voir la présentation générale de la collection dans laquelle l'ouvrage est publié.   Utiliser le bon pour commander l'ouvrage.