Section 1: Referral to and decision by the court.

The application to open safeguard proceedings is filed by the legal representative of the legal entity or by the individual debtor at the registry of the competent court. It sets out the nature of the difficulties it is encountering and the reasons why it is unable to overcome them. It states whether it undertakes to draw up the inventory under the conditions provided for in article L. 622-6-1 as well…

Before a ruling is made on the opening of the proceedings, the court clerk, at the request of the president of the court, shall notify the legal representative of the debtor legal entity or the debtor natural person that he must convene the social and economic committee, so that the persons entitled to be heard by the court and to exercise the remedies in accordance with Article L. 661-10. A…

Where the number of employees employed by the debtor, determined in accordance with the provisions of 4° of Article R. 621-1, is at least equal to 50, the guarantee institutions mentioned in Article L. 3253-14 of the Labour Code are invited by the Registrar to make known the person authorised to represent them at the hearing. The observations provided for in the fifth paragraph of article L. 621-4 may also…

The court’s decision to appoint a judge, before ruling, pursuant to Article L. 621-1, to gather all the information on the financial, economic and social situation of the company, is rendered under the same conditions as those provided for in the first two paragraphs of the same article, for the opening of the proceedings. The report of this judge, to which the expert’s report is annexed, where one has been…

The court shall rule, where appropriate, on the report of the judge assigned to the case. The judge may not sit or take part in the deliberations. If the judgment cannot be rendered immediately, the pronouncement is postponed to a future hearing, the date of which is communicated to the debtor at the hearing. The judgment opening the proceedings takes effect from its date.

Where it appears that the debtor does not meet the conditions required for the opening of safeguard proceedings, the court shall reject the application.

The judgment opening the safeguard proceedings shall be notified to the debtor by the registrar within eight days of the date of the judgment.

The court clerk shall without delay send a copy of the judgment initiating the proceedings: 1° To the designated judicial representatives; 2° To the public prosecutor; 3° To the departmental or, where appropriate, regional director of public finance of the department in which the debtor has his registered office and to that of the department in which the principal place of business is located.

The registrar shall inform the person responsible for carrying out the inventory of its appointment by any means.

The judgment opening the safeguard proceedings shall be mentioned together with an indication of the powers conferred on the administrator, where one has been appointed, in the register of commerce and companies if the administrator is a trader or a legal person registered in that register. In addition, for proceedings opened on or after 26 June 2018, the judgment shall be mentioned together with an indication of the main, secondary…