Section 3: Decisions and appeals

The decision sets out the legal and factual considerations on which it is based. It indicates the time limit for appealing to the Conseil d’Etat. Where applicable, it mentions which of the costs of the procedure are to be borne by the person against whom the sanction has been pronounced. It is signed by the Chairman and mentions the names of the persons who ruled on the case. When it…

Where the decision concerns a statutory auditor approved in another Member State of the European Union, the High Council shall inform the competent authorities of that State.

The decision shall be published on the High Council’s website for a period of not less than five years. It may be made public under the conditions set out in article L. 824-13.

The full jurisdiction appeal to the Conseil d’Etat is lodged under the conditions laid down by the Code of Administrative Justice. The chairman of the High Council or the person sanctioned may lodge a cross-appeal within two months of being notified of the initial appeal.

When the restricted panel imposes a financial penalty, the chairman of the High Council shall, after the decision has become final, forward to the Minister of Justice, the information relating to the recovery of the financial penalty. The Minister for Justice issues the collection order. In the event of a stay of execution under the conditions provided for in articles L. 824-2 and L. 824-3, the limitation period for issuing…

Temporary prohibition and striking off entail, for the duration of the sanction in the first case, definitively in the second case, prohibition from practising the profession of statutory auditor. The person so sanctioned may not claim to be an auditor.

Auditors who are temporarily banned or struck off shall return to the companies whose accounts they are responsible for certifying the documents they hold on behalf of those companies, as well as any sums already received which do not correspond to the reimbursement of expenses incurred or to work actually carried out.

In the event of provisional suspension, temporary prohibition or striking off, the president of the regional company shall immediately inform the persons with whom the statutory auditor was carrying out his duties of this measure. In the absence of an alternate statutory auditor, when a sanction of provisional suspension, temporary prohibition or striking off is pronounced against a company registered on the list mentioned in I of Article L. 822-1,…