About

Outside of its US home market, France is the largest market for Clear Channel, one of the world’s largest outdoor advertising companies. Since 2013 Patrick Remot has headed the legal and compliance function for the French subsidiary, which numbers six team members in total. Remot explains that the team’s ‘mission is to support the other departments to secure the business – for example by concluding agreements, by helping them making business decisions in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations, to explain to them the risks making a business decision non-compliant and helping them to find a compliant solution as a business partner’. In 2016, the team was commended for its work in effectively blocking a proposed merger between two of Clear Channel’s main competitors. By making submissions to the French Competition Authority, the two companies decided that too many concessions would need to be made in order for the merger to be economically viable. Continuing to demonstrate its impact on Clear Channel’s ability to achieve its goals, in 2017 the legal team achieved a lawsuit victory to the value of €1.6m in damages against Sigfox, a leading French tech start-up with high profile international corporate investors. In-house lawyer Jérôme Da Costa, who is highlighted as ‘a great fighter in the lawsuit who always gives it his all in his job with humour’, was instrumental in concluding the ‘two years of very hard judicial proceedings’ against Sigfox. Another notable member of the team is deputy legal director Xavier Françoise, who ‘has a passion for the company and has a very strong knowledge of the public laws which are applicable to our market’. With Françoise’s skills the team is able to adapt to France’s recently amended national advertising outdoor regulations, new legislation on public procurement and future European regulations concerned with personal data protection obligations. Naouel Khellaf who is responsible for the private law department, and especially the NICTs (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) subjects, ‘has a particular ability to work with Clear Channel France employees from various departments to pursue one objective, the success of [the company] and the business’. Bursting with this calibre of talent, the team is particularly proud of developing a client satisfaction survey where the business has given the department excellent approval ratings. Of the scheme, Remot says, ‘it is a source of pride for everyone in the legal team to know that [our] work is really appreciated by all the company’.