Investigation powers: The French Constitutional Court considers that requests for information based on Article L. 450-3(4) of the French Commercial Code does not represent grounds for a complaint and declares the disposition conform to the Constitution (Brenntag)

*This article is an automatic translation of the original article, provided here for your convenience. Read the original article. On 8 July 2016, the Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation) referred a priority constitutionality question to the Constitutional Council, which on 4 May 2016 handed down its decision on the constitutionality of the fourth paragraph of Article L. 450-3 of the Commercial Code, which governs so-called simple investigations. Origin of the QPC The referral to the Constitutional Council took place during the investigation of four referrals concerning practices in the chemical commodities sector, a sector that gave rise to Decision 13-D-12 of the Competition Authority ("the Authority"). In this context, Brenntag had been the subject of several requests for