French use of ‘poison pill’ strategy pushes EU takeover rules to limit

New French Government rules allow companies to use so-called 'poison pill' defences to fight off hostile takeover bids, even if they come from companies without access to similar strategies. This would seem to go against the recent European Union Takeover Directive, and Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, spoke out on 21 February 2006 against countries that are preparing to give companies wide use of poison pill defences, such as France and Luxembourg.