OD FLASH | CSE Expert: The employer is only required to disclose existing and necessary documents

Cour de cassation, Social Chamber, November 19, 2025, No. 24-12.667

In connection with an internal reorganization project aimed at modifying the organization of IT and office activities and involving the transfer of some employees to another entity within the group, the company initiated consultation with the CSE (Works Council).

The CSE decided to commission an expert assessment and appointed an expert. Considering that it had not received all the information requested by the expert, the CSE applied to the president of the judicial court, ruling under an expedited procedure on the merits, in order to obtain disclosure of several documents as well as an extension of the consultation period to two months from receipt of the requested information.

In a decision dated January 18, 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal granted these requests.

The employer filed an appeal with the Cour de cassation, arguing that the application to the court was untimely because a copy of the summons had been filed with the court registry only after the consultation period had expired, and that the requested documents were neither necessary for the expert’s mission nor, for some of them, existing or legally required.

The Cour de cassation dismissed the appeal.

On the admissibility of the action, it held that, in the context of the expedited procedure on the merits, the date on which the court is seized is the date on which the summons is served. Since the summons was served before the expiration of the consultation period, the CSE’s action was admissible, regardless of the date on which the summons was filed with the court registry, provided that it occurred before the hearing.

On the merits, the Social Chamber recalled that the employer is required to provide the expert with the information necessary for the performance of his or her mission, provided that the documents exist and are relevant to analyzing the impact of the project on working conditions, in accordance with Articles L.2315-94 and L.2315-83 of the French Labor Code.

It found that the Court of Appeal had established that the requested documents did exist and that the information whose disclosure it ordered was necessary for the expert to carry out his or her mission.

Accordingly, an expert appointed by the CSE in the context of its consultative powers cannot require the production of documents that do not exist or whose preparation is not legally mandatory for the company.