There has been a lot of media coverage in recent weeks about the Public Documents Act coming into force on 12 July 2019. Public Documents Act. Journalists warn that from the date indicated, photocopying identity cards or passports, among other things, will be punishable by up to two years' imprisonment. An analysis of the new legislation leads to the conclusion that the theses presented so far are misleading, to say the least.

The Public Documents Act contains one criminal provision[1] of concern to businesses. It provides that whoever manufactures, offers, disposes of or holds for disposal a replica of a public document commits an offence punishable by law. When interpreting the new provisions, it is crucial to establish what the legislator's objective was when enacting them. Indeed, the purpose of the Public Documents Act is primarily to increase security in connection with the use of public documents and to curb cases of 'identity theft'. This is the essence of the provisions in question. It should be noted that the construction of the criminal provision with its scope mainly relates to the circulation of replicas of public documents; in particular, it is not the storage of the replica itself that is prohibited, but the storage of the replica for the purpose of disposal. In principle, the only signifier that could potentially concern employers is the 'production' of a replica public document, although it may be problematic to determine how to understand the production of a public document to be punishable under the statutory regulations in practice.