French Monetary and Financial Code
In forceI. - The loans referred to in 3a of article L. 511-6 may be granted when the lending company or a member of its group, on the one hand, and the borrowing company or a member of its group, on the other hand, are economically linked in one or other of the following ways:
1° The two companies are members of the same economic interest grouping as referred to in Title V of Book II of the French Commercial Code or of the same grouping awarded a public procurement contract, as referred to in Article L. 1220-1 of the French Public Procurement Code;
2° Over the last two financial years, one of the two companies has received or is receiving a public subsidy as part of the same project involving the two companies and, where applicable, other entities. This project must meet one of the following criteria:
a) The project has been approved by a competitiveness cluster within the meaning ofArticle 24 of the French FinanceAct no. 2004-1484 of 30 December 2004 for 2005 ;
b) A grant has been awarded by the European Commission or by any body to which the European Commission has delegated this role;
c) A grant has been awarded by a region or by any body to which the region has delegated this role;
d) A grant has been awarded by the Agence de l'environnement et de la maîtrise de l'énergie (Environment and Energy Management Agency) referred to in article L. 131-3 of the Environment Code, or by the Agence nationale de la recherche (National Research Agency) referred to in article L. 329-1 of the Research Code, or by the Banque publique d'investissement (Public Investment Bank) referred to in article 1 A of Order no. 2005-722 of 29 June 2005 relating to the Banque publique d'investissement (Public Investment Bank);
3° The borrowing company or a member of its group is a direct or indirect subcontractor, within the meaning of law no. 75-1334 of 31 December 1975 relating to subcontracting, of the lending company or a member of its group acting as principal contractor or subcontractor or as project owner. Any loan set up within this framework shall not affect or replace the obligations of the lending company or the relevant member of its group acting as principal contractor, subcontractor or project owner in accordance with the terms of this law.
II. - A company or a member of its group may also lend under the provisions of 3 bis of article L. 511-6 to another company or a member of its group if :
1° It has granted the borrowing company or a member of its group a patent operating licence referred to inArticle L. 613-8 of the French Intellectual Property Code, a trademark operating licence referred to in Article L. 714-1 of the French Intellectual Property Code, a franchise referred to inArticle L. 330-3 of the French Commercial Code or a management lease referred to inArticle L. 144-1 of the French Commercial Code;
2° It is a customer of the borrowing company or a member of its group. In this case, the total amount of goods and services acquired during the last financial year preceding the date of the loan or during the current financial year under a contractual relationship established at the date of the loan is at least 500,000 euros or represents at least 5% of the turnover of the borrowing company or the member of its group concerned during the same financial year;
3° It is indirectly linked to the borrowing company or a member of its group via a third-party company with which the lending company or a member of its group and the borrowing company or a member of its group, each insofar as it is concerned, have had a commercial relationship during the last financial year preceding the date of the loan or have an established commercial relationship on the date of the loan. In the context of this commercial relationship, the goods and services acquired by the customer from the supplier during the last financial year preceding the date of the loan or during the current financial year in the context of a relationship established on the date of the loan is at least 500,000 euros or represents at least 5% of the supplier's turnover.
III. - The provisions of article L. 511-6 3a are not applicable in cases where the provisions of article L. 511-7 are applicable.
For the application of this article and article R. 511-2-1-2, the group is understood to mean all the undertakings included in the same scope of consolidation within the meaning ofarticle L. 233-16 of the Commercial Code when the organisation of the treasury of these undertakings is established at group level.
The loan granted by the lending undertaking may not place the borrowing undertaking in a state of economic dependence contrary to the provisions of the second paragraph of Article L. 420-2 of the French Commercial Code.
