Question 11309 — businesses

Summary

Mr. Laurent Mazaury draws the attention of the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial, Energy and Digital Sovereignty to the entry of the Chinese group JD.com into the capital of the Fnac Darty group, to the tune of approximately 22%, via the indirect acquisition of the stake previously held by the German group Ceconomy. This operation, validated under conditions by the Ministry of the Economy, provides that JD.com remains a shareholder “ dormant”, deprived of any governance rights, and that he undertakes not to increase his participation in the company. However, government communication remains fragmented: neither the exact nature of the commitments made, nor the planned control methods, nor the associated legal safeguards have been made public. Fnac Darty is not a company like any other: it is the leading distributor of cultural goods in France, particularly books, and a central player in the dissemination of cultural works, technologies and multimedia services. In this context, the entry of a foreign investor, from a country whose companies are subject to legal obligations of cooperation with the State, raises crucial questions about editorial independence, freedom of dissemination of works, cultural diversity, data protection of consumers and the security of technological infrastructures. In view of the issues raised and the unprecedented nature of this participation, he asks it to please provide answers to the following questions: what are the precise guarantees imposed on JD.com to prohibit any influence on the governance of Fnac Darty and what are the limitations associated with its economic and financial rights? What legal measures have been put in place to prevent any circumvention of these commitments, in particular via subsidiaries, affiliated entities or indirect participations? How can the State ensure that no direct or indirect increase by JD.com in the capital of Fnac Darty occurs without its authorization? A specific assessment of the risks linked to editorial independence, cultural diversity and Has freedom of distribution of works been achieved, taking into account the central role of Fnac Darty in French cultural distribution? What analyzes have been carried out to assess the risks linked to digital security, consumer data protection and technological dependence on an actor subject to Chinese legal obligations? Is the Government planning to strengthen the control system for foreign investments in order to explicitly include the distribution of cultural goods, recommendation platforms and digital access infrastructures? What monitoring methods will be implemented to sustainably verify compliance with the commitments made by JD.com and what sanctions or authorization withdrawal levers will the State be able to activate in the event of a breach? He wants to know his position on this subject.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.