This chapter describes the limits of investor damage remedies in securities law actions in France and offers two modest proposals for ameliorating them: (1) utilize the existing injunctive powers of the French securities regulator, the Autorité des Marchés Financier (AMF), to order restitution to investors in lieu of a sanction; and/or (2) obtain additional power from the legislature to allow the AMF to determine and require restitution to investors after the AMF Commission on Sanctions has sanctioned persons subject to their jurisdiction, using the AMF Mediator function to make the determination.

Background on existing regulation

The first element of the French system that strikes one is that it was clearly inspired and influenced by the US Securities Act of 1933 and the 1934 Securities and Exchange Act. Similarly, the AMF itself, whose predecessor, the Commission des Operations de Bourse, was created in 1967, is modelled on the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The AMF has a somewhat broader role than the SEC but with much less power especially in the early days; it not only enforces, administers and proposes new provisions of the securities law to take account of the evolution of the financial markets, it is also perhaps more directly involved in the changes in company and business law. Of course, the integrity of the markets is the main concern of the AMF, and like the SEC, its main tool is disclosure.