Although plea agreements remain prevalent, enforcement authorities have increased the frequency of dawn raids and sharpened their focus on financial institutions, political personnel, and sectoral risks, including automotive safety and occupational health.
Internal investigations are still lacking a comprehensive statutory framework and are primarily steered by soft law, while their coverage by attorney-client privilege remains unsettled and increasingly constrained, heightening the risk of document seizures during searches.
In 2026, we expect in-house counsel to be confronted with challenges stemming from multi-site dawn raids, the preservation of attorney-client privilege, and increased cooperation between the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and foreign prosecutors.
These challenges are expected to be particularly acute regarding ESG-related matters, greenwashing, and large-scale tax schemes.
Tougher prosecution and expanding enforcement focus
As in previous years, there is a clear and continuing shift toward more aggressive prosecution and a greater willingness by criminal courts to convict.
This heightened severity is reflected in the frequent use of the offense of criminal conspiracy (association de malfaiteurs), whose broad definition readily captures a wide range of criminal conduct and thus provides prosecutors with a powerful tool to secure convictions when other offenses are harder, if not impossible, to establish.
This shift is underscored by the treatment of financial crimes as forms of organized crime, as evidenced by the creation of a national prosecutor’s office against organized crime (PNACO) tasked with addressing organized crime across multiple domains, including financial crimes.
Criminal authorities have been especially active in tax-fraud cases: an American multinational strategy and management consulting firm is reportedly being investigated for transfer-pricing issues, and a French bank has reportedly been the subject of a large-scale dawn raid related to suspected tax fraud.
On the political front, criminal authorities have also been active, with several cases in 2025 culminating in convictions of high profile politicians, including a former presidential candidate and a former French President.
At the same time, plea agreements (Convention Judiciaire d’Intérêt Public or CJIP) were used extensively in 2025, most notably in connection with the “CumCum” tax fraud case involving dividend arbitrage schemes, under which a French bank reached an agreement with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
Regulatory and criminal authorities tend to investigate and prosecute service providers in the crypto-assets and financial services. As it implements the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) EU regulation, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) has announced it will align with guidelines recently adopted by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). These guidelines set out supervisory practices to enable national authorities, including the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), to prevent and detect market abuse in the crypto-asset sector. In particular, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) will (i) implement new supervisory practices, such as monitoring social media or taking into account the possession of inside information by employees of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs), and (ii) establish procedures to analyze suspicious transaction or order reports (STORs) submitted by market participants.
Narcotraffic Law establishes PNACO for exceptional cases
To strengthen the tools available to combat organized crime, the Narcotraffic Law, published in June 2025, created a new prosecutor’s office (PNACO) with jurisdiction over cases of exceptional complexity.
The PNACO may be seized only when two conditions are met: (i) the matter is deemed exceptionally complex; and (ii) the offenses fall within a defined statutory list. That list has been expanded to encompass financial offenses, including tax fraud and money laundering.
Unlike the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), which seeks to build a granular understanding of complex financial flows, the PNACO seems designed to adopt a distinctly more aggressive posture focused on the rapid dismantling and eradication of criminal networks.
Internal investigations in France: evolving guidance and unsettled privilege
Although internal investigations remain a prominent issue, there is still no clear legislative framework governing the practice. Internal investigations are still shaped by soft-law instruments and institutional guidance from the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), the French Anti-Corruption Agency (AFA), the French National Bar Council (CNB) or even the French Association of In-House Counsel (AFJE), together with the Business Ethics Circle (CEA).
At the end of 2024, a bill was introduced to incorporate rules governing internal investigations conducted in parallel with judicial proceedings into the French Code of Criminal Procedure.
In 2025, Le Club des Juristes, a legal think tank, published a report supporting the creation of a legal framework for internal investigations while recommending that their conduct retain sufficient flexibility to avoid the de facto privatization of police investigative functions. At the same time, the Defender of Rights (Défenseur des droits) issued its own soft-law framework for internal investigations into workplace harassment.
Despite the persistent uncertainty surrounding the legal framework governing internal investigations, they remain a clear focus for the French authorities, especially in the context of plea agreements (Convention Judiciaire d’Intérêt Public or CJIP). It has become increasingly common for the PNF to propose a tailored internal investigation methodology to the company under investigation and to treat compliance with that methodology as a mitigating factor when determining the applicable fine.
The confidentiality of internal investigations, especially those conducted by lawyers, remains unsettled. French authorities consider that such investigations do not fall within the scope of attorney-client privilege. On the other hand, legal experts argue that internal investigations conducted by a lawyer must be protected by attorney-client privilege.
Although documents generated during internal investigations do not, as a rule, fall within the attorney-client privilege, it could be argued that they become privileged when used in the exercise of defense rights in criminal proceedings.
Expanding enforcement across financial, political, auto-motive and workplace sectors
Financial institutions have been a primary focus of enforcement actions, and this is likely to remain the case in 2026. In 2025, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) continued to play a leading role in criminal proceedings against financial institutions, resulting in major dawn raids and substantial penalties for banks.
In this regard, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) could be granted expanded investigative powers. A recent draft bill proposes allowing the public prosecutor’s office to deploy AMF investigators in criminal proceedings, introducing new investigative techniques (including web scraping), and establishing a leniency program for cooperating parties.
Beyond the financial sector, French authorities have intensified criminal enforcement against political figures, resulting in the convictions of two prominent figures for bribery.
The automotive sector also came under heightened scrutiny in the wake of the Takata airbag scandal, which led to the opening of a judicial investigation and a ministerial decree strengthening airbag manufacturers’ obligations.
Our practice is seeing an increase in worker health and safety disputes involving employers’ criminal liability, a trend expected to continue into 2026.
Cross border coordinated investigations
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) is expected to continue coordinating with its foreign counterparts, as evidenced by simultaneous dawn raids on major banks’ headquarters in Paris and Luxembourg last June.
This approach is also illustrated by the plea agreement reached between the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) and a security hologram company, following a criminal investigation initiated pursuant to a legal assistance request from the Ukrainian judicial authorities.
On the same note, we expect the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) to further ramp up its efforts to combat cross border white collar crime, especially in France, which saw 49 investigations opened in 2024.
Challenge for in-house teams – privilege predictions for 2026
In the wake of dawn raids carried out in the “CumCum” investigation, we have identified significant challenges in managing simultaneous dawn raids, by both administrative and judicial authorities, especially with respect to the treatment and seizure of privileged documents.
There seems to be a broader movement toward restricting the attorney-client privilege in criminal matters, especially when it relates to advisory work. The Criminal Chamber of the French Supreme Court has recently sought to narrow the scope of legal privilege enforceable against criminal authorities to exchanges relating to the rights of the defense occurring after the commission of the facts that are likely to violate French criminal law. This highly questionable interpretation of the law is not necessarily final, as an appeal has been lodged with the European Court of Human Rights.
By contrast, the Commercial Chamber of the French Supreme Court maintains a conservative stance, disregarding any client-attorney correspondence seized by the tax authorities.
We therefore emphasize the importance of receiving appropriate training on these topics, especially to prepare for dawn raids.
On the horizon – 2026 and beyond
ESG
Although the U.S. appears to be moving away from ESG issues and the EU is encountering difficulties in implementing the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), these trends do not indicate any retrenchment in France, where ESG remains firmly rooted in the legal framework.
Environmental and climate issues are increasingly being addressed through corporate criminal law, often following complaints by civil society groups and NGOs. Environmental misconduct can constitute offenses under general criminal law or fall within the scope of specialized criminal statutes. French law also provides a specific plea agreement for offenses listed in the French Environmental Code. There have been six plea agreements concluded so far in 2025 on environmental offenses, and 37 plea agreements in total.
Enforcement against greenwashing is also gaining momentum, as illustrated by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), which has indicated that tackling greenwashing will remain a clear priority in the years ahead. Moreover, a recent civil judgment concerning the climate-related communications of France’s leading energy company underscores the growing significance of these issues and suggests that criminal proceedings are likely to ensue on these matters.
Attorney-client privilege
As explained above, the scope of attorney-client privilege is likely to become a pressing issue for professionals going forward. In-house counsel should anticipate that authorities may attempt to seize materials protected by the attorney–client privilege during searches.
Regulatory sanctions
Across Europe, regulators are increasing both the pace and the severity of sanctions. In France, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) stands out as one of the most assertive, and among the toughest, enforcers in the EU. Similar trends are visible across Europe, supported by stronger whistleblowing frameworks.
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