Contesting dawn raids carried out by the French Financial Markets Authority: scrutiny by the president of the Court of Appeal and of the Court of Cassation

Written by Eric Dezeuze and Anne Guilberteau

Published in the Revue des Sociétés – Dalloz

On 2 April 2025, the French Court of Cassation partially quashed an order issued by the first president of the Paris Court of Appeal. Said order had cancelled search and seizure operations conducted by the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on the grounds of insufficient reasoning. The cassation stems from the insufficient reasoning as to why the investigators’ delivery to the individual subject to the search of an unsigned copy of the authorizing order from the liberty and custody magistrate (juge des libertés et de la détention) would have caused prejudice to that individual. The case has been referred back to the appeal court, before a different magistrate, for a new ruling on the validity of the search and seizure operations. Read more