France: Paris Court of Appeal confirms the suspension of the Veolia acquisition of Engie’s stake in Suez due to lack of information and consultation of Suez employee representation bodies

On 19 November a decision handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal in a dispute that pitted Suez works councils against those of Engie and Veolia, in the wake of the Veolia acquisition of Engie’s 29.9% stake in Suez in October 2020, serves as a forceful reminder of the obligation to inform and consult employee representatives whenever a project is effectively and sufficiently ready to be accomplished. The decision asserts that the employer responsibility for informing and consulting employee representatives remains, even in cases where a decision involves third-party companies. Third party companies are therefore also accountable for complying with this requirement, by their having to provide the necessary information. As such, these third party companies may suffer consequences in so far as a judge can order a suspension of a corporate operation until such time that the information and consultation procedures have been completed. The court also ruled that the Suez representative bodies should have be involved from the moment the shares were sold, given that public statements from Veolia clearly intimated that this 29.9% acquisition was just a first step towards a full takeover bid that would in turn lead to a major industrial operation. The full corporate project thus appeared to be effectively and sufficiently complete for it to be submitted to the relevant employee bodies for their opinion.