France's Ministry of Economics and Finance published an overview of the newly adopted Economic Life Simplification Law, which aims to reduce administrative burdens, support business cash flow and accelerate industrial and digital projects. Key measures include moving all public procurement for the State, its operators, hospitals and social security bodies onto the single Place platform by 2030, raising the works-contract threshold for exemption from advertising, and reserving lots for young innovative companies. The law also eases business transfers by removing the requirement to directly inform employees in firms with more than 50 employees and cutting the information period to one month for smaller firms. It generalises administrative mediation by making the interruption of appeal deadlines and the suspension of limitation periods the default during mediation, including for cases handled by the Defender of Rights, and creates a Simplification Council to run business tests on draft rules with economic impact. On banking and insurance, professional account closures must be free of charge, banks must send very small enterprises an annual fee statement free of charge, and professional tariff grids are to be harmonised from 1 January 2027. Insurance indemnification deadlines are capped at six months where expert assessment is required and two months otherwise, with additional timelines after the insured agrees, and the rules on giving reasons for cancellation and on termination rights after one year are extended to professional customers. The law also introduces accelerated procedures for certain industrial and energy projects, sets a conditional pathway for industrial-scale data centres to be classified as projects of major national interest, and provides for the abolition, merger and automatic sunset of certain state consultative bodies.

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