In a first-ever action, a company and its former managers were criminally prosecuted for institutional harassment associated with suicides among the company’s employees.

In a judgment last month, the Paris Criminal Court sentenced France Telecom to a fine of 75,000 euros -  the maximum penalty – for institutional harassment that had spread from the leadership to the rest of the company in 2007-2008. Three former executives of France Telecom: Didier Lombard , ex-president and chief executive officer; Louis-Pierre Wenès, ex-number 2; and Olivier Barberot, former director of human resources, were found guilty of "institutional harassment" and sentenced to one year in prison each, along with a 15,000 euro fine.  Other defendants were found guilty of complicity in moral harassment.