Abstract: This article analyzes the key trends of development of the legislation on holding companies, expounds the legal regulation of activities of companies with specific legal status expressed in their dependence on the will and interests of other legal entities. The work gives definition to the concept of subsidiaries, classification of obligations, criteria of delegation of responsibilities, analyzes the problem of legal regulation of internal relations between the parties in the holding structure, and explores questions pertaining to regulation of liability of the parent company on obligations of the subsidiary according to the laws of the Russia and France. Analysis of the Russian and French laws in regulation of civil legal liability of the parent companies on obligations of the subsidiaries demonstrates that there are differences in the concept of subsidiary and establishment of the dependent relations, control, participation of the parent company in the subsidiary, and source of regulation. The French law can be recognized as more flexible compared to Russian and more loyal in the principles of dependent relations of the companies.