Week of 10 February 2025

Business secrets
When ordering a company to pay damages for having produced, in the course of the proceedings, a document protected by business secrecy, an appeal court cannot simply state that it has not been established that the production of this document would constitute an exception to the protection of business secrecy as provided for in Articles L. 151-7 and L. 151-8 of the Commercial Code, namely that it would be justified by the protection of a legitimate interest recognized by European Union or national law, without ascertaining, as it was requested to do, whether said document was not crucial to proving the alleged facts of unfair competition and whether the infringement of business secrecy resulting from its obtention or disclosure was not strictly proportionate to the objective pursued.
Cass. com., 5 February 2025, No. 23-10.953

Payment periods
Article 3(5) of Directive No 2011/7/EU precludes a contractual term setting a period for payment longer than 60 calendar days from being determined unilaterally by the debtor, unless it can be established, having regard to all the contractual documents and terms contained in that contract, that the parties to that contract have expressed their concurrence of wills to be bound specifically by the term concerned.
CJEU Case C-677/22 Przedsiębiorstwo Produkcyjno – Handlowo – Usługowe A., Judgment of 6 February 2025, 

Sudden termination of established commercial relations
Since the notice period owed by the party responsible for terminating an established commercial relationship to the partner affected is intended to give the latter the time necessary to redirect the resources it devoted to that specific relationship, there is no need, when calculating the duration of this notice period, to take into account the notice period from which the partner benefited when it severed its established contractual relationship with another operator.
Cass. com., 29 January 2025, No 23-16.526

Rescue aid
The difficulties of an undertaking belonging to a group must be regarded as being intrinsic if they are not the result of an arbitrary allocation of costs within that group.
EGC Case T-743/21 Ryanair DAC v Commission, Judgment of 5 February 2005, 

Warranty against latent defects
While there is an irrebuttable presumption of knowledge on the part of the professional seller of the defect in the item sold, which obliges the latter to make full reparation for any damage resulting therefrom, a purchaser who became aware of the defects in the item at the end of the sale cannot be guaranteed by his or her own seller against the consequences of the fault he or she committed by reselling the item in full knowledge of the facts.
Cass. com., 29 January 2025, No 23-17.954