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18 February 2015
Client Alert | France | Commercial Planning
By partner Emmanuel Vital-Durand and associate Julien Sauvé
Section III of French Law no. 2014-626 of 18 June 2014 on craft industries and trades, commerce and very small enterprises, known as the "Pinel" law, introduced a major reform of commercial planning legislation. In particular, from now on, when a project requires planning permission, such planning permission will double up as a retail licence.
When the project requires a retail licence, as defined under Article L. 752-1 of the French Commercial Code, the planning permission will constitute such retail licence, provided that the planning application receives a favourable opinion from the Departmental Commercial Development Commission or, as applicable, the National Commercial Development Commission.
(art. L. 425-4 French Town Planning Code)
Although the new legislation entered into force on 18 December 2014 (six months after the law's promulgation), the implementing decree was widely awaited, as the application of the new provisions in practice was far from clear cut.
Decree no. 2015-165 of 12 February 2015 on commercial development was published in the French Official Gazette on 14 February 2015. It provided a number of valuable clarifications regarding the new commercial planning regime, the most significant of which are set out in the client alert below.
