by Bertrand Delafaye and Benoit Zagdoun The French legal system provides a variety of ways to secure the involvement of employees in the growth and profits of their company, including compulsory deferred profit-sharing plans (accords de participation), optional voluntary cash-based profit-sharing plans (intéressement), and other similar mechanisms. The Amended Social Security Financing Law of 2011 provided for a new legal framework entitled “profit-sharing” premium (prime de partage des profits), which set forth rules to allocate premiums to the benefit of employees in the event their company decides to increase dividend distributions to its equityholder(s) (the “Premium Allocation Rules”). These Premium Allocation Rules are in force but have not yet been codified.  According to recent government declarations, however, the Premium Allocation Rules could be abrogated by the end of 2013. Overview Generally, the Premium...