Database

Under the Directive on Data Retention, operators were required to retain certain categories of traffic and location data (excluding the content of those communications) for a period between six months and two years and to make them available, on request, to law enforcement authorities for the purposes of investigating, detecting and prosecuting serious crime and terrorism. On 8 April 2014, the Court of Justice of the European Union declared the Directive invalid. However, not all national laws which implemented the Directive have been overturned.

France has not overturned the data retention law (French Decree No 2006-358) and, therefore, telecommunication operators, both internet and phone operators, must retain their data for one year.

A ministerial circular dated 5 April 2016 on public procurement states that it it illegal to use a non "sovereign" cloud for data produced by public (national and local) administration: all data from public administrations has to be considered as archives and therefore stored and processed in France.

For intra-corporate transferees (ICT), the salary must be 1.5 times higher than the minimum salary.

For intra-corporate transferees (ICT), contractual service suppliers (CSS) as well as independent service suppliers (ISS), there are labour market tests performed by the Prefect, which take into account the market for the occupation and the geographical area in which a request is being made and the match between the foreigner's qualification, experience, degrees or diploma and the features of the job which the applicant applies for.

It is reported that several operators in Member States of the European Union, including France, Germany and the Czech Republic, are charging higher rates for the termination of international traffic originating from outside the EU than for international traffic between sovereign states inside the EU. This has been identified as a barrier by the USTR 2015 Section 1377 Review On Compliance with Telecommunications Trade Agreements.

Orange (formerly known as France Telecom), the incumbent telecommunications operator in France, was privatized in 2004. Nevertheless, as of December 2014, the French Government owns 13.6% of the total number of shares.

As a member of the EU, France adopted the WTO Reference Paper on Basic Telecommunications in 1997, but with restrictions on foreign equity limits for radio-based services.

Telecommunications networks and services fully liberalized and competition rules apply. Nonetheless, the access to the last mile is still owned by the incumbent.

France Brevets is a €100 million State-supported Patent Fund owned jointly by the French government and Caisse des Depots, a private firm “under Parliament’s supervision and guarantee”. It is reported that the fund is being deployed to build strategic patent positions and monetize them through effective and focused licensing efforts.

In the European Union, there is no general principle for the use of copyright protected material comparable to the fair use/fair dealing principle in the US. Directive 2001/29/EC defines an optional, but exhaustive set of limitations from the author´s exclusive rights under the control of the “three-step test”. This is a clause in the Berne Convention that establishes three cumulative conditions to the limitations and exceptions of a copyright holder’s rights. The Directive has been transposed by Member States with significant freedom.

France follows the droit d’auteur (author’s right) tradition, where exceptions are enumerated in an exhaustive fashion and the law of copyright does not provide for an overriding rule of fairness.

There are additional restrictions to foreign investment related to VoIP and Video on Demand services. For instance, the same regulations generally applicable to all providers of telecommunications services apply to VoIP providers although telecommunications regulations usually do not apply to these types of suppliers (e.g. regarding the provision of emergency calls, telecommunications surveillance, and interconnection obligations).

There are restrictions to mergers and acquisitions in place. The French takeover law contains provisions regarding hostile takeovers. The law allows the implementation of measures (i.e. "poison pill”) as a takeover defense. These measures include granting existing shareholders and employees the right to increase their leverage by buying discounted shares through stock purchase warrants. French companies can suspend implementation of a takeover when targeted by a foreign company whose country of origin does not apply reciprocal rules.

The French government has intervened in the acquisition of Orange streaming service Dailymotion by Yahoo in 2013 arguing national interest concerns. As a result, Yahoo was not able to acquire 75% of the shares of Dailymotion but only 50%. In 2015, the French government intervened again in the intent of Orange to sell Dailymotion.

Acquisitions by non-EU investors, including the acquisition of more than 33.33% of the stock or voting rights of a company registered in France, are required to seek prior authorization from the French Ministry of Economy (MINEFI). MINEFI is authorized to reject the investment if necessary in order to safeguard national interests.

The European Regulation No. 1042/2013 amending the Council Implementing Regulation No. 282/2011, declares that from January 2015, all supplies of telecommunications, broadcasting and electronic services will be taxable at the place where the customer belongs. These include, inter alia:
- images or text, such as photos, screensavers, e-books and other digitised documents e.g. PDF files;
- music, films and games, including games of chance and gambling games, and of programmes on demand;
- online magazines website supply or web hosting services distance maintenance of programmes and equipment;
- supplies of software and software updates advertising space on a website.

Both EU and non-EU suppliers have to register for VAT purposes and comply with the relevant obligations of the Member State where the customer is established, has his/her permanent address or usually resides. This may be burdensome as there are 81 VAT rates across the 28 EU countries and the rates may vary between 3% (Luxembourg) to 27% (Hungary) across member states. Furthermore, member states impose varying thresholds at which companies must begin paying VAT, ranging from EUR 0 to EUR 60,000.

As an alternative to obtaining multiple VAT registrations in each Member State where a supplier has a customer, affected suppliers may be able to opt to account for VAT across the EU via a a web-portal in the Member State in which they are identified. Hence, the system, known as the Mini One-Stop Shop (MOSS) scheme, allows taxable persons to avoid registering in each Member State of consumption.

The French government has decided in September 2015 to increase an existing tax on Internet service providers. The Cope Tax was introduced in 2009 and successfully defended against the Commission’s protestations in April, with France winning a ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Now, the tax is set to rise to 1.2% of revenue, up from 0.9%, which Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin reckons will raise an extra €70 million for broadcasters.