Innovation. / REGULATION.

The department advises companies, investment funds, infrastructure operators and public entities operating at the intersection of regulation, geopolitics and technological innovation.

Geopolitical fragmentation, a European regulatory offensive, the race for artificial intelligence, the redrawing of energy value chains: the law is no longer merely a framework. It has become an instrument of power. The European Union legislates to protect its strategic assets and impose its standards. The United States responds with the CHIPS Act and a strengthened CFIUS. China is deploying its own architecture around data security and technology export controls.

In this context, our clients need an adviser capable of thinking of the law as a strategic lever, of combining litigation and regulatory influence, and of anticipating regulatory moves before they crystallise into constraints.

Our approach. An integrated strategic unit.

The department does not see itself as an additional regulatory practice. It steps in upstream of problems, in how they are structured, rather than downstream, once the constraint has already materialised. Legal intelligence as a method

The department does not merely apply texts. It anticipates them, maps them and models their impact. Regulatory analysis is combined with systematic institutional monitoring (preparatory work, public consultations, positions of regulatory authorities, emerging case law) to give clients a forward-looking reading of regulatory risk.

Combining litigation and influence

Bruzzo Dubucq has a litigation culture rooted in its longstanding practice of high-stakes commercial disputes and restructurings. The department extends this expertise by combining it with a capacity for regulatory influence: actions before national and European courts, complaints to the Commission, contributions to public consultations, third-party intervention strategies before the CJEU. The aim is not only to defend an interest: it is to help shape the rules.

Cross-disciplinary practice

Every matter handled by the department by its very nature involves several branches of law. An investment by a sovereign wealth fund in a French data centre operator simultaneously requires analysis under merger control, foreign investment screening, tax law, energy law and data law. The department is structured to handle this complexity as a whole, without fragmentation between specialisms.

Areas of expertise.
What we do.

Infrastructure I Data centres

The department acts across the entire life cycle of a digital infrastructure project: land and planning structuring, environmental permits (ICPE classified installations, Green Industry Act), securing energy connections, project finance arrangements, negotiation of PPAs (renewable electricity), local taxation (IFER, property tax, CET) and compliance with data sovereignty requirements.

The department also handles litigation arising from local opposition, administrative appeals and negotiations with local authorities.

Sovereignty

This area covers the protection of strategic assets, securing critical supply chains and reconciling national interests with market rules.

The department supports companies facing technological dependence, extraterritorial pressure or hostile acquisition strategies by state or state-backed actors.

It also advises on the legal structuring of sovereign industrial sectors: batteries, semiconductors, cloud.

Foreign investment I Control of capital flows

The department has dedicated expertise in foreign investment screening procedures in France (IEF), European screening, CFIUS mechanisms, merger control and the Foreign Subsidies Regulation.

It assists both investors seeking access to the European market and French targets facing unsolicited offers, systematically integrating the national security dimension into the transactional analysis.

European regulation of the digital economy

The body of European digital regulation (DMA, DSA, AI Act, Data Act, DORA, NIS 2, eIDAS 2.0, European Chips Act) forms a regulatory ecosystem of unprecedented density.

The department supports companies in achieving operational compliance, anticipating sector inquiries, defending themselves before regulatory authorities and, where appropriate, challenging decisions before the General Court of the European Union and the CJEU.

Strategic litigation & Geo-economic arbitration

The department acts in disputes with a geo-economic dimension: damages actions for breaches of competition rules, challenges to extraterritorial measures, investment disputes before arbitral tribunals, proceedings before the European courts and liability actions linked to international sanctions.

The combination of court litigation, international arbitration and influence strategy is at the heart of this practice.

Blockchain I Digital assets I DeFi

The department maintains and deepens its longstanding expertise in blockchain, digital asset regulation (MiCA Regulation, the French digital asset service provider and crypto-asset service provider regimes, PSAN/PSCA) and decentralised finance. It advises on the regulatory structuring of projects, tokenisation transactions, AML-CFT compliance and crypto-asset litigation.

Data

The scale of European legislative activity relating to data is exceptional. Between data protection, the organisation of data sharing, cybersecurity requirements and new economic balances, market players must reconcile compliance and performance.

The department supports its clients on all these issues: GDPR (governance, legal bases, processors, transfers, DPIAs, incident management); data contracts and flows (data sharing, audits, security and reversibility clauses); securing intellectual property issues, particularly in data & AI projects (databases, training data, rights in outputs and terms of use).

These issues fall within the new European frameworks dedicated to data sharing and re-use, in particular the Data Act, the Data Governance Act and, for health, the EHDS Regulation.

These sharing mechanisms must be reconciled with the protection of sensitive information, in particular trade secrets, which calls for safeguards of confidentiality, access control and contractual framing. The department acts to preserve strategic assets within a controlled openness approach.

Economic security I Digital hygiene

Economic security aims to anticipate, identify and prevent threats likely to affect tangible and intangible assets: industrial espionage, capture of sensitive data, economic destabilisation.

Digital hygiene encompasses the good practices designed to protect information systems, data and exposed individuals (executives, managers or sensitive profiles).

The firm's approach is personalised and systemic: diagnosis of practices, risk assessment, monitoring systems and ongoing training for executives.

The dedicated team.

Cédric Dubucq

Avocat associé

Mathis Campestrin

Avocat associé

Joachim Wathelet

Conseil scientifique

No results

References.

ICO >

Segregated account >

Real estate tokenisation >

Regulatory structuring of a gift voucher issuer >

Sale of a digital asset service provider (PSAN) >

Risk mapping. / AML-CFT >

Support in carrying out a €35 million ICO, including assistance in preparing the appropriate documentation.

Support for a credit institution in implementing its segregated account offering, in particular to provide a practical solution for issuers of stablecoins.

Legal development of a real estate tokenisation solution combining the issuance of financial securities and DeFi to make South American real estate accessible to European investors.

Support for a major group in structuring an issue of dematerialised special payment vouchers (titres spéciaux de paiement) for a network of partner retailers and its employees.

Assistance and advice to the shareholders of a company registered as a Digital Asset Service Provider (PSAN) in connection with the sale of their shares.

AML-CFT analysis of luxury real estate transactions.

Innovation. / REGULATION.