Commissioned by the French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Reflation, Bruno Le Maire and the Secretary of State in charge of the Social, Solidarity and Responsible Economy, the Rocher Report aims to assess the results of the Law n°2019-486 of May 22, 2019 on Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation (“Loi Pacte”) while making a prospective analysis.

The Report sets out clearly the reasons of obstacles impeding the use by companies of the Loi Pacte : while some have taken the plunge by adopting a raison d’être, and even, for a few, the label “company with a mission” (“société à mission”), many do not perceive the benefits offered by these provisions, but do identify the constraints.

14 proposals are developed following three main lines of action:

•    Spreading the word: several leverages can be used in order to ensure the widest possible implementation of the new measures resulting from the Loi Pacte;

•    Giving credibility: the alleged risk of “purpose washing” requires to give credibility to the raison d’être and the société à mission provisions;

•    Looking to the future: removing the barriers of the development of the sustainability fund (“fonds de pérennité”), enshrining the obligation to take into consideration social and environmental issues at the European level and encouraging all European companies to adopt a raison d’être and move towards an integrated accountancy.

 Some statistics :

•    Out of the 120 companies of the SBF 120, 1 is a société à mission, 9 have a raison d’être and 5 have a preamble to their bylaws (55 with an extrastatutory raison d’être);

•    As of the date of the Report, 206 sociétés à mission have been created in less than two years, 70% of them by companies with less than 50 employees.

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