Christophe Lemaire

In a decision rendered on February 10, 2023, the Constitutional Council confirmed the constitutionality of article L. 464-2, I, paragraph 1, second sentence of the French Commercial Code and established the existence of a right of appeal against decisions to refuse commitments by the French (...)

On December 6, 2022, the French Competition Authority [hereinafter "the Authority"] rejected TDF’ s request to lift its commitments entered into in Decision No. 15-D-09 of June 4, 2015 relating to practices implemented in the mobile telephony equipment hosting sector (See, Christophe Lemaire, (...)

In a decision No. 22-D-11 dated November 16, 2022 [hereinafter, the "Decision"], the French Competition Authority [hereinafter, the "Authority"] imposed a penalty of 60,000 euros on the Association réunionnaise interprofessionnelle de la pêche et de l’aquaculture [hereinafter, the "ARIPA"], (...)

This section selects books on themes related to competition laws and economics. This compilation does not attempt to be exhaustive but rather a survey of themes important in the area. The survey usually covers publication over the last three months after publication of the latest issue of (...)

In a decision dated November 3, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal declared inadmissible the voluntary intervention of Electricité de France [hereinafter "EDF"] in the appeal filed by the Association nationale des opérateurs détaillants en énergie [hereinafter "ANODE"] against the decision of the (...)

On October 20, 2022, the French Competition Authority [hereinafter the "Authority"] issued a statement regarding the implementation of the dismissal for lack of priority of complaints filed by companies with the investigating authorities. On the same day, the Authority published its first (...)

By a decision dated July 1, 2022, the Conseil d’Etat dismissed Sony’s application for excess of power against the decision of the French Competition Authority [hereinafter, the "Authority"] to reject the commitments proposed by the latter and to refer the case back to the investigation. (...)

In the context of a referral to the French Competition Authority [hereinafter, the "Authority"] (Decision No. 21-D-22 of September 15, 2021 relating to practices implemented in the addressed mail sector) by the company Adrexo against a potential abuse of dominant position by the company La (...)

On June 16, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal, a court designated as having jurisdiction by the Tribunal des conflits after three years of proceedings (on the procedure for designating the competent court, see Christophe Lemaire, Adèle Azzi, Secret des affaires: The Conseil d’Etat declines (...)

Following the presidential election of April 24, 2022, the Editorial Board of the magazine Concurrences has launched a call to its readers to make proposals for reform to the President of the Republic and his new Government. The proposals below have been suggested by the readers of the (...)

Note this decision dated June 7, 2022 in which the French Competition Authority makes for the first time use of the new power conferred to it by the transposition of Directive 2019/1 of December 11, 2018 aimed at providing the competition authorities of the Member States with the means to (...)

Nearly fifteen years ago, the French Competition Authority (which was still only the Council) broke new ground in Europe by launching a study on compliance programs. This study led to the adoption, in 2012, of a first framework document dedicated to these programs. The objective was to (...)

In a decision dated May 11, 2022, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) censured a decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, which had recognized the probative value of 28 anonymized reports and imposed a civil fine of 2 million euros on GE Energy Product France [hereinafter "GEEPF"], the (...)

In a decision dated April 21, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal declared inadmissible the appeal lodged by Sony against the decision of the French Competition Authority [hereinafter, the "Authority"] to reject the commitments proposed by the latter and to refer them back to the investigation. (...)

We will not go back over the many twists and turns of the case that led to the cancellation of the visit and seizure operations at Whirlpool’s premises in the context of this article. A case with twists and turns These have been commented on previously in these columns (See Christophe (...)

While the decisions of the French Competition Authority [hereafter the"Authority"] sanctioning the violation of commitments have multiplied in recent years(see in particular Ch. Lemaire and A. Azzi, L’Autorité de la concurrence adopts a new decision concerning the non-respect of commitments (...)

On January 26, 2022, the Court of Cassation once again ruled on the issue of the protection of attorney-client correspondence, in a landmark decision. **Reminder of the context and of the solution adopted by the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal, according to which internal (...)

The period under review has brought its share of rulings relating to challenges to search and seizure operations [hereafter "OVS"]. In three rulings dated January 4, 2022 and one dated January 12, 2022, the Court of Cassation confirmed the legality of several orders of the liberty and (...)

On January 5, 2022, the Court of Cassation, seized of an appeal against an order of the first president of the Paris Court of Appeal, decided to stay the proceedings and to refer back to the Tribunal des conflits the task of designating the court having jurisdiction to hear an appeal against (...)

Decidedly, decisions and rulings on filibustering procedures are becoming more common at the national level. Indeed, following the opening of an investigation in 2018 for practices identified in the maritime transport sector in Mayotte, the investigating departments of the Competition (...)

In a ruling handed down on December 1, 2021, the Commercial Chamber of the French Supreme Court dismissed the appeal filed by the Akka group of companies against the ruling handed down on May 26, 2020 by the Paris Court of Appeals and thus confirmed the decision of the French Competition (...)

By a judgment dated November 4, 2021, the Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal filed by the Conseil supérieur du notariat ["CSN"] and the Association pour le développement du service notarial ["ADSN"], against the order of the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal, dated December 11, (...)

In this case, the general rapporteur of the French Competition Authority had referred to the liberty and custody judge [hereinafter, the "JLD"], by request dated June 25, 2019, a request for authorization of visit and seizure operations [hereinafter, "OVS"] at the premises of Swarovski France (...)

On October 11, 2021, the French Competition Authority [the "Authority"] published a draft framework document on competition compliance programs and put it out for public comment in order to update the framework document published in 2012, which was withdrawn following the reform of the (...)

On September 30, 2021, the Second Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation issued three highly anticipated rulings on the issue of the legal qualification of the Competition Authority [the "Authority"] in litigation initiated following the highly notable ruling issued by this same chamber on (...)

This contribution written by Christophe Lemaire (co-director of the Master 2 European Union Economic Law at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and associate lawyer, Ashurst Paris) was collected following the annual "Droit & Commerce" conference organised on 26 June 2021 in (...)

The decision of the Paris Court of Appeal on September 2, 2021, which fully reversed a decision of the French Competition Authority [the "Authority"] sanctioning a company for non-compliance with commitments made to it, concerns a case that is almost a decade old. Feedback on the commitments (...)

A new twist in the dispute over the legality of the visit and seizure operations (hereinafter, "OVS") at the premises of the Whirlpool company... Indeed, for the second time in three years, the Criminal Division of the French Supreme Court censured the first president of the Paris Court of (...)

Commenting on the decision by which the Constitutional Council had declared Article L. 464-2 C. com. (decision no. 2021-892 QPC of 26 March 2021), we expressed the feeling of unease that this decision left (v. Concurrences n° 2-2021, obs. Ch. Lemaire and M. Florent, Le Conseil constitutionnel (...)

On June 8, 2021, the French Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence) announced the implementation of a platform to ensure the secure exchange of electronic documents in the context of proceedings before it. This platform, called Hermès, is intended to be used for both merger control (...)

A few months after the expiry of the deadline set by the ECN+ Directive (see Directive (EU) 2019/1 of 11 December 2019 aimed at providing Member States’ competition authorities with the means to enforce competition rules more effectively and to ensure the proper functioning of the internal (...)

By order of May 12, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal declared that it did not have jurisdiction to hear an appeal against an unusual communication from the French Competition Authority accompanying a decision to impose a sanction for abuse of a dominant position, because, according to the Court (...)

On 6 July 2021, the French Supreme Administrative Court published a study, commissioned by the Prime Minister, on the investigative powers of the administration and independent administrative authorities ["AAI"]. The Conseil d’État provides a detailed overview of all the investigative powers (...)

Seized by the Court of Cassation of a priority question of constitutionality ["QPC"] formulated by the Akka group, the Constitutional Council adopted on March 26, 2021, a decision under the terms of which it declares Article L. 464-2, paragraph V, subparagraph 2 C. com., in its wording (...)

By a decision dated 24 March 2021, the French Competition Authority ["the Authority"] sanctioned three companies active on the market for the manufacture and marketing of cold industrial sandwiches sold under private labels ["MDD"] to large and medium-sized food stores ["GSA"] and service (...)

On February 17, 2021, the Court of Cassation upheld a decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, which had dismissed the appeal filed by Caudalie against an order of the liberty and custody judge authorizing the Competition Authority to conduct inspections and seizures on Caudalie ’s premises on (...)

This set of articles is dedicated to the changes made to the French competition law by the DDADUE bill of December 3, 2020. Both the law on restrictive competition practices and the law on anti-competitive practices are affected by the necessary transposition of EU directives (directives (...)

After launching a consultation on the subject in 2019, the Competition Authority released, on 27 January 2021, a thematic study on the application of competition law to professional bodies ["the Study"]. The Study, which is based inter alia on written contributions received in the context of (...)

In recent times, the Court of Cassation has intervened twice on the issue of the seizability of correspondence exchanged between a lawyer and his client. These two rulings illustrate not only the increasingly strict approach of the competition authorities (the first case concerns the DGCCRF, (...)

On 18 November 2020, the National Assembly adopted in final reading the bill containing various provisions for adapting to European Union law on economic and financial matters (known as the DDADUE law). This law, published in the Official Journal on 4 December 2020, is the subject of a (...)

In a decision dated November 18, 2020, the French Competition Authority marks yet another twist in the Wane saga by declining jurisdiction over practices that took place in French Polynesia. Thus, in spite of the referral decision handed down by the First President of the Paris Court of (...)

The period under review brings its new episode relating to the issue of the treatment of business secrecy before the Competition Authority (for a reminder of previous episodes, v. not. Christophe Lemaire, Adèle Azzi, Le Conseil d’État décline sa compétence pour traiter d’un recours contre une (...)

Seized in 2015 by Cdiscount and EMC Distribution, the French Competition Authority on 30 July this year submitted for public consultation the commitments proposed by Lego SAS ["Lego"] to remedy the competition concerns identified. The consultation was open until 15 September 2020. Review of (...)

Following the very remarkable ruling of the Court of Cassation of June 4, 2020, the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal granted a petition for legitimate suspicion, dismissed the case from the Polynesian Competition Authority and referred the case to the Metropolitan Competition (...)

On June 4, 2020, in a very noteworthy ruling, the Second Civil Chamber of the Court of Cassation had affirmed that the Polynesian Competition Authority ["the PCA"] should be qualified as a jurisdiction when it is called upon to pronounce a sanction. Consequently, any person brought before this (...)

By a decision dated 16 July 2020, the Competition Authority ["the Authority"] imposes fines of EUR 93 million on the twelve cartel participants active in the purchase and sale of pork cuts and charcuterie products. From a procedural point of view, this decision provides in particular (...)

In a judgment dated July 8, 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal ["the Court of Appeal"] cancelled the visits and seizures carried out by the Competition Authority ["the Authority"] at Whirlpool ’s premises in 2014. On 27 and 28 May 2014, the Authority had conducted a search of the premises of (...)

By a decision dated 26 February 2015, the Competition Authority had taken up ex officio matters relating to practices implemented on the land assistance market of the public land institution of the Western Rhône-Alpes region (hereinafter ’EPORA’). The Authority was alerted by an (...)

On 27 April, the European Commission submitted for consultation Broadcom’s proposed commitments on the markets for chipsets for TV decoders and modems, pursuant to Article 27 of Regulation 1/2003. The context that led to the proposal for commitments As a reminder, in June 2019, the (...)

While the number of commitment decisions is increasing, the recent period has been marked by a new series of decisions, this time relating to the monitoring of the proper implementation of these commitments and, where appropriate, the sanctioning of non-compliance. This decision is now the (...)

On 2 April 2020, the Competition Authority accepted and made binding the commitments offered by the La Poste group in the parcel delivery sector and therefore closed the proceedings initiated before it in 2010, following two referrals made by the Minister for Economic Affairs and by a relay (...)

The period is decidedly rich with regard to the litigation surrounding the protection of business secrecy of companies. After the two rulings of the Court of Cassation of 29 January 2020 (see above), the Court of Appeal has now decided that the protection of business confidentiality is a (...)

In a decision dated 4 March 2020, the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation confirmed and specified the procedures for conducting [OVS visits and seizures] authorized by the liberty and detention [judge (juge des libertés et de la détention JLD]) in the context of an investigation (...)

The period under review is marked not only by the publication of a study on commitments (see above) but also by the adoption by the Competition Authority of a new decision on the non-compliance of commitments entered into in the area of anti-competitive practices. These decisions, although (...)

On 29 January 2020, the Court of Cassation handed down two judgments specifying the obligations incumbent on the Authority’s General Rapporteur when he decides to lift the protection previously granted to documents in the investigation file under the secrecy of business. Although the facts (...)

As part of an educational approach and to reflect on its practice, the Competition [Authority] published on 17 January 2020 a study dedicated to behavioural commitments, an instrument that has become a major instrument in the implementation of competition law. Written in partnership with the (...)

By two orders dated 11 December 2019, the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal had the opportunity to rule on the regularity of OVS] inspection and seizure [operations in the notarial sector. The cases before this magistrate were all related to an order issued in support of a request (...)

While Act No. 2019-486 of 22 May 2019 relating to the growth and transformation of enterprises, commonly referred to as the PACTE Act, granted Competition Authority and DGCCRF officials in charge of investigating alleged anti-competitive practices the possibility of accessing the connection (...)

In the context of the investigation of a referral by an operator active in the PlayStation 4 compatible control accessories sector of practices implemented by the Sony group on the market for eighth-generation static video game consoles and PlayStation 4 compatible control accessories, the (...)

On 28 October 2019, the Competition Authority imposed a fine on a group of small and medium-sized enterprises active in road haulage for having organised practices of customer allocation among its members, through two of its entities, Astre Coopérative and Astre Commercial. On this occasion, (...)

In the context of the investigation of two referrals made almost ten years ago by the Minister for Economic Affairs and a relay point parcel delivery operator (the Belgian company Kiala) concerning practices allegedly implemented by the La Poste group in the parcel delivery sector, the (...)

On 29 July 2019, the Paris Administrative Court had to rule on the admissibility of an action for damages brought by the Île-de-France region in the now famous Île-de-France high school public procurement case. On this occasion, the Administrative Court rejected the request made by the (...)

On 23 July 2019, the Competition Authority and the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) announced the adoption of a joint cooperation charter. This charter is a direct response to one of the recommendations made by the Court of Auditors on 14 March (...)

The ruling handed down by the Court of Cassation on 13 June 2019 in the Whirlpool case is interesting in several respects. First of all, it recalls the importance of the right to an effective remedy, thus echoing the position expressed a few years ago by the European Court of Human Rights in (...)

There are still very few judgments on the settlement procedure under French law and no doubt the judgment handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal on 13 June 2019 will attract attention. The Court of Appeal has declared admissible for the first time an appeal against a decision rendered at the (...)

This case is noteworthy in several respects. On the one hand, this is a new sanction decision for a "procedural" infringement. Such decisions - whether at national or European level, and whether in the field of anti-competitive practices or merger control - have tended to increase in recent (...)

Law No 2019-486 of 22 May 2019 on the growth and transformation of enterprises was published in the Official Journal of 23 May 2019 (hereinafter the ’PACTE Law’). This publication follows the decision of the Constitutional Council of 16 May 2019 (Dec. No. 2019-781 DC), which declared certain (...)

Inter-regional interchange fees (hereinafter the ’Inter-regional MIF’) are fees applied to payments made within the European Economic Area (hereinafter the ’EEA’) using consumer debit and credit cards issued outside the EEA. The MasterCard and Visa networks set the level of the inter-regional (...)

This decision is a new decision to dismiss the complaint (the fifth since the beginning of 2019). It is not so much the reasons for the rejection that are of interest here (the Authority concluding that there is insufficient evidence) as the Authority’s reproach of the complainant’s behaviour (...)

After a market test, the Commission considered that the package of commitments offered by Disney, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros and Sky UK in November and December 2018 removed the competition concerns identified by the Commission. As a reminder, the competition concerns (...)

Whereas the Senate had deleted the article authorising the government to transpose the ECN+ directive by means of an order, the Senate has just reinstated this amendment and is taking the opportunity to adopt an amendment authorising the agents of the competition authorities to be communicated (...)

By application lodged at the Registry of the Paris Court of Appeal on 21 November 2018, Andreas Stihl SAS and Stihl Holding AG&CO KG ("Stihl") applied for a stay of execution of Decision No. 18-D-23 of the French Competition Authority ("the Authority") dated 24 October 2018 after having (...)

The publication by the Autorité de la concurrence of its procedural notice on the settlement procedure ("communiqué Transaction") on 27 December 2018 ratified the new French settlement regime which succeeds the former procedure for non-contestation of objections. The communiqué states that it (...)

Article L. 420-6 C. com. has long been of concern (see Cl. Lucas de Leyssac, L’inquiétant article L. 420-6 C. com., in La sanction des pratiques anticoncurrentielles par recours à l’article L. 420-6 C. com., 5e journée Christian Gavalda, Concurrences No. 1-2008, p. 21). The recent ruling of (...)

One recalls that about two years ago, the Commission made public a proposal for a directive aimed at providing NCAs with the means to implement the competition rules more effectively (see Ch. Lemaire, ECN: The European Commission makes public a proposal for a directive aimed at providing NCAs (...)

Following the market test launched in March 2018, the Commission, by a decision of 7 December 2018, made the commitments offered by TenneT legally binding. The proposed commitments aim to resolve the competition concerns identified by the Commission regarding TenneT’s behaviour in severely (...)

On 10 and 12 December, the Commission published a decision and two sets of guidelines aimed at regulating or clarifying the right of access to the file and personal data of companies involved in competition law proceedings. New Commission decision on the processing of personal data in (...)

The Decision of the Competition Authority (hereinafter the ’Authority’) of 5 December 2018 on practices in the household appliances sector is an important decision in the context of the implementation of leniency at national level. Indeed, in addition to the fact that, in the present case, the (...)

The period under review saw the presentation before or by Parliament of two initiatives that deserve to be reported here, although their future is uncertain at the moment given the very recent position adopted by the Senate. On the one hand, during the night of 14 to 15 September 2018, the (...)

More than two years after the Commission decision making the commitments offered by Paramount legally binding, the Commission is again market testing the commitments offered, this time by Disney (on 25 October 2018) and by NBC Universal, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros and Sky UK (on 12-13 December (...)

While sanction decisions for non-compliance with commitments in the area of anti-competitive practices are relatively rare (for a recent review, see Concurrences No. 4-2018, obs. Ch. Lemaire and H. Fricaudet, p. 173), the year 2018 continues to fuel the debate. Indeed, after the recent (...)

On July 24, 2018, the French Competition Authority accepted and made binding the commitments proposed by Groupe Canal Plus (GCP). It thus closed the proceedings initiated before it in September 2014, following a referral made by a satellite decoder manufacturer, Aston France, concerning (...)

The issue of intra-group relations is a complex subject in competition law, particularly when groups evolve and restructure during or following anti-competitive practices (see on this subject, Ch. Lemaire, Responsabilité concurrentielle des groupes de sociétés, Contrats, Conc., Consom., July (...)

The period under review provides a further illustration of a sanction by the Competition Authority for failure to comply with commitments entered into by an undertaking in the context of a procedure for non-contestation of objections. Decisions are still relatively rare, since - unless I am (...)

On April 5, 2018, the French Competition Authority published the commitments proposed by Groupe Canal Plus (GCP) to address the competition concerns identified in the market for the marketing of satellite television signal decoders. This procedure is part of the investigation into a referral, (...)

This order is in line with a series of previous decisions confirming the importance of the role of counsel in access and seizure operations from the outset. Following a lengthy procedure and in the context of a referral after cassation, the Paris Court of Appeal, in its order of March 3, (...)

In two rulings of 21 March 2018, the Court of Cassation notably reaffirmed the full applicability of ordinary law on access and seizure operations to press and audiovisual communication companies, by dismissing appeals against two orders issued by the First President of the Paris Court of (...)

After announcing it in a press release dated October 19, 2017 (Aut. conc., October 19, 2017 press release on the settlement procedure and compliance programs, Concurrences No. 1-2018, obs. Ch. Lemaire and S. Naudin), the Competition Authority published, on 8 March 2018, a draft procedural (...)

On 20 February 2018, the Competition Authority accepted and made binding the commitments offered by the Association Martinique Interprofessionnelle de la Viande, du bétail et du lait (AMIV), and closed the proceedings initiated before it in May 2017, following a referral accompanied by a (...)

After the interim relief judge of the Conseil d’État, it is now at the level of the Constitutional Council that the turmoil of the execution of the commitments undertaken by the Fnac Darty group will be felt in order to see the merger between the two entities authorised (Aut. conc., dec. no. (...)

In a judgment of 18 January 2018 handed down on appeal against the decision of the Competition Authority (’the Authority’) in the Professional Kitchen Equipment case (on this decision, see, Ch. Lemaire, S. Naudin, The Competition Authority publishes - seven months after their adoption - its (...)

On 21 December 2017, the Competition Authority accepted and made binding the commitments proposed by La Poste group in the sector of collection and recovery of non-hazardous business waste, and closed the procedure initiated before it in April 2013, following a referral submitted by the (...)

In its ruling of 21 December 2017 in the case of interbank commissions for the exchange of cheque images, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected several procedural grounds raised by the offending companies. While most of these means ventured on land relatively "marked out" in jurisprudence (...)

French jurisprudence has a few long-running cases... The "Brenntag" case in the chemicals sector should undoubtedly join them. Indeed, we remember that after having referred the matter to the DGCCRF in 2001, the company Gaches Chimie referred the matter to the Competition Council in 2003 (...)

On 29 November 2017, the Competition Authority published the commitments proposed by the Association Martinique Interprofessionnelle de la Viande, du bétail et du lait (AMIV) to address the competition concerns identified in the market for the production and marketing of fresh meat in (...)

The period under review is marked by the order of 8 November 2017 issued by the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal concerning the conduct of searches on the premises of the Whirpool company and, more specifically, the seizure of documents covered by solicitor-client privilege. The (...)

In this case, SCET, as the perpetrator, and the Caisse des dépôts et consignations group, as the parent entity, were jointly and severally fined 560,000 euros for having reached an agreement with SETIS, a subsidiary of the Degaud Group, when the land assistance contract was awarded to the (...)

The Authority issued a press release on 19 October 2017 on the settlement procedure and compliance programmes. While its stated objective is to revise various reference texts of the Authority to incorporate the replacement of the old procedure for non-contestation of grievances by the new (...)

On October 18, 2017, the AMF adopted a settlement decision that marks a break in its approach to compliance programme implementation commitments - and which led it to formally withdraw its framework document on the subject the very next day (see our comment above on the October 19, 2017 press (...)

On October 4, 2017, on referral of its own motion, the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation issued a so-called "de rabat" ruling, in which it reversed a previous ruling, issued on November 8, 2016, in that it contains a procedural error not attributable to the parties in question (...)

On 7 September 2017, the French Competition Authority accepted and made binding the commitments proposed by ENGIE in the energy sector, and closed the proceedings initiated before it in October 2015, following a referral with a request for protective measures submitted by the company Direct (...)

On 5 September 2017, the Competition Authority published the commitments proposed by the La Poste group to address the competition concerns identified by the Authority on the market for the collection and recycling of ordinary business waste. These proceedings were initiated following a (...)

It should be noted that the decision of the Competition Authority of 27 July 2017 imposing a penalty of 80,000 euros on the undertaker COMTET was published during the period under review. While there is nothing unusual about this decision, it is nevertheless worth mentioning insofar as the (...)

In two rulings dated July 26, 2017, the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation ruled that there was no need to refer to the Constitutional Council three priority constitutionality issues relating to the operations of visits and seizures, raised in cases between Free Mobile and the DGCCRF. (...)

By a decision of 26 July 2017, the French Competition Authority accepted and made binding the commitments proposed by Tereos in the sugar beet supply sector, and closed the proceedings initiated before it in 2016, following a referral accompanied by a request for interim measures submitted by (...)

In two rulings dated 28 June 2017, the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation set strict limits on the possibility for companies that have been searched to obtain, during the visit and seizure operations, an intervention by the Judge of Liberties and Detention ("JLD") under whose authority (...)

On 21 June 2017, the Competition Authority published the commitments proposed by Schneider Electric, active in the maintenance of medium and low-voltage electrical distribution equipment, in order to address the competition concerns identified by the Authority during the investigation of the (...)

Following the market test launched in December 2016, the Competition Authority has made the commitments proposed by the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) legally binding. These commitments were intended to remedy competition concerns identified by the (...)

The judgment handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal on 23 May 2017 in the yoghurt cartel case has already attracted attention because of the importance of the Court’s reduction in the amount of the penalty. Among the pleas in law raised in these proceedings, one in particular stands out, (...)

Bruno Lasserre, former French Competition Authority’s President, assesses his experience in competition regulation, the evolution of this law and its upcoming challenges. Interview conducted by Christophe Lemaire, Partner Ashurst, Associate professor Sorbonne Law School. The competition: (...)

Less than six months after the adoption of Act No. 2016-1547 of 18 November 2016, which confers jurisdiction on the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal to hear appeals against decisions refusing protection of business secrecy or lifting the protection granted (see Ch. Lemaire and S. (...)

The rights of the defence do not wait. Their absolute nature was reaffirmed in a decision of 4 May 2017, in which the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation recalled that a company that is the subject of a visit and seizure operation must be able to exercise its rights of defence from the (...)

The question of the legality of the provisions of article L. 450-3 C. com. continues to be debated. Following the decision of the Constitutional Council of 8 July 2016 declaring paragraph 4 of Article L 450-3 of the Commercial Code to be in conformity with the Constitution, (V. not. G. (...)

On 7 April 2017, the Competition Authority published the commitments proposed by the Tereos cooperative active in the sugar beet supply sector, aimed at addressing the competition concerns identified by the Authority in the course of the investigation of the case which led to the examination (...)

The questions for this interview were assembled by the Editorial Committee of Concurrences Review : Nicolas Charbit, Chief editor of Concurrences, Alain Ronzano, Editor of « L’actu-concurrence » and Christophe Lemaire, Partner Ashurst – Associate Professor, Sorbonne Law School (University (...)

On 6 April 2017, the European Commission published the results of the work carried out in collaboration with several competition authorities, including the French authority, assessing the effects of the remedies adopted in Europe in the online hotel reservation sector. Following (...)

After the adoption of Regulation 1/2003 some 15 years ago, this proposal for a so-called ECN + Directive marks a new stage in the approximation of competition law in the European Union. Whereas the first text established a convergence rule for the substantive rules and mechanisms for (...)

The practice of massive and undifferentiated seizures of electronic mail continues to be the subject of much litigation, as shown by this judgment, in which the ECHR found itself examining this practice once again after having done so in its Vinci Construction judgment of 2 April 2015. While (...)

On 16 March 2017, the European Commission announced the launch of a new tool allowing individuals to alert the Commission anonymously of any infringement of the competition rules (and in particular of cartels). The brief presentation of this new detection tool on the European Commission’s (...)

In its second settlement decision of 2017, the Competition Authority sanctioned the petanque boules manufacturer Obut for an abuse of a dominant position consisting of a practice of fixed prices towards its resellers. The Competition Authority first considered that, with a market share of 80 (...)

On 9 February 2017, the Competition Authority published a progress report on the commitments made by Booking.com in the context of Decision No 15-D-06 of 21 April 2015 concerning the online hotel reservation sector. This report, which comes 18 months after the entry into force of the (...)

Can a lawyer be treated as a litigant like any other in an investigation? One might have thought that this issue was reserved for the current judicial situation in criminal matters and that competition litigation was preserved from it. This would have been wrong, as demonstrated by the (...)

The judgment of the Court of Appeal in the chemical commodities case, already commented on in these columns for its part relating to the violation of the rights of defence found by the Court, is also rich in lessons concerning (i) the procedural implications of the joint and several liability (...)

On 26 January 2017, the French Competition Authority ordered Sanbri SAS to pay a fine of 3,200 euros for having reached an agreement with some of its Internet distributors regarding the resale price of products relating to wine tasting manufactured by Sanbri and marketed under the brand name (...)

A little more than ten years after the first in-depth reform of business secrecy in competition proceedings (V. Ch. Lemaire, "La protection du secret des affaires devant la Conseil de la concurrence: une évolution bienvenue", JCP éd. E 26 January 2006, No. 4, pp. 191-201), the adoption of the (...)

Following the market test launched in April 2016, the Commission has made legally binding commitments offered by the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA - a professional organisation representing more than 850 financial institutions) and Markit. The commitments were (...)

The decision-making practice of the French Competition Authority with respect to breaches of the commitments is still not well developed (Aut. conc., dec. no. 11-D-10 of July 6, 2011 relating to compliance by the city of Marseille with the commitments made in Competition Council Decision no. (...)

While the law of 18 November 2016 has just introduced an autonomous action before the Paris Court of Appeal for the protection of business secrecy (see this column above), this judgment illustrates the nature of the litigation that may arise, in matters of business secrecy, in connection with (...)

Marie-Laure Sauty de Chalon explains how she became aufeminin’s CEO, one of the world leader of editorial and community-based content for women, and why she accepted to join the French Competition Authority. Particularly involved in the issues raised by the evolution of digital economy, (...)

Following the market test launched in April 2016, the Commission has made the commitments offered by Paramount Pictures legally binding. The commitments were designed to address the competition concerns identified by the Commission regarding certain clauses in contracts between Paramount (...)

On 8 July 2016, the Cour de cassation (Court of Cassation) referred a priority constitutionality question to the Constitutional Council, which on 4 May 2016 handed down its decision on the constitutionality of the fourth paragraph of Article L. 450-3 of the Commercial Code, which governs (...)

Following the market test launched in February 2016, the Commission has made legally binding commitments offered by fourteen shipping companies. The commitments were designed to remedy competition concerns identified by the Commission relating to the publication by shipping lines of their (...)

While the decision of 17 December 2015 concerning certain practices of Orange in the electronic communications sector is often considered to be the first case implementing the settlement procedure, as it results from the Macron Act, it was legally only an early implementation of this (...)

Although very short, the present decision of the Authority is certainly worth mentioning, for at least two reasons: firstly, it is the first decision in which the Authority has formally decided on a request for waiver of commitments made binding in one of its previous decisions and, secondly, (...)

The publication by the Competition Authority of three decisions relating to practices in the professional kitchen equipment sector highlights two "firsts" which are quite contrasting in procedural terms. On the one hand, it can be seen that two of the three decisions concerned - published (...)

When Nautech lodged a complaint with the Competition Authority concerning alleged practices in the Mediterranean yacht repair sector, the Authority declared itself incompetent to assess some of these practices and rejected the complaint concerning the other practices in the case because of the (...)

In proceedings initiated on 21 November 2013 and 13 November 2015, the Commission found that the practice of shipping lines of publishing their intentions regarding future price increases was likely to give rise to competition concerns. Indeed, the fifteen companies concerned regularly (...)

Mention should also be made of the decision of 27 January 2015 by which the Authority penalised four companies for concerted action for the award of contracts for the provision of school transport in the Lower Rhine. A practice of understanding on a local scale The substance of this case (...)

This issue of the Chronicle will once again mention a decision of the Constitutional Council on the compliance with the Constitution of Article L. 464-2 of the Commercial Code relating in particular to sanctions. It will be recalled that in October 2015 the Constitutional Council had ruled (...)

This case, which concerns Orange’s behaviour on the business customer market, received extensive media coverage on the eve of the Christmas and New Year holidays. The Competition Authority itself issued a particularly long and detailed press release (containing its own summary and boxes (...)

On 10 December 2015, the European Commission adopted a decision making binding the commitments proposed by BEH to end restrictions of competition on the wholesale electricity market in Bulgaria. The competition concerns identified by the Commission concerned territorial restrictions in the (...)

The period under review saw an unprecedented decision, to our knowledge, at the end of which the French Competition Authority declared that commitments entered into in 2012 by the French Golf Federation are no longer binding or have become irrelevant. It will be recalled that some three (...)

The investigation services of the Competition Authority had opened an investigation into Adidas’ commercial practices restricting the online sale of its distributions. On 18 November 2015, the Authority decided to close this investigation following a commitment by Adidas to remove from its (...)

By a decision dated 16 November 2015, the Tribunal des conflits had to rule on the jurisdictional order competent to hear actions for damages brought by a public person against the authors of a public works contract-sharing agreement. History of the case In this case, the facts of which (...)

In a decision of 14 October 2015, the Constitutional Council, ruling on a priority question of proportionality ("QPC") raised by the Court of Cassation in the so-called flour case (Aut. conc., dec. no. 12-D-09 of 13 March 2012 reformed by CA Paris, November 20, 2014, Sté Grands Moulins de (...)

On 10 September 2015, the Competition Authority accepted and made binding the revised commitments proposed by four manufacturers (Bolton Solitaire, Danone, Johnson & Johnson and Pernod-Ricard) in the overseas consumer goods distribution sector. The investigation carried out by the (...)

The Law for Growth, Activity and Equal Economic Opportunity (known as the Macron Law) was enacted on 6 August 2015. It provides for a number of measures relating to competition law, both substantive and procedural. The former, which concern merger control, the liberalisation of coach (...)

On 30 July 2015, the Competition Authority published a decision in which it makes binding the commitments entered into by the Fédération française des clubs alpins et de montagne (FFCAM), the compagnie des guides de Chamonix Mont Blanc (GC) and the bureau des guides Saint Gervais Mont Blanc (...)

Does the rejection of a first request for provisional measures which is the subject of an appeal preclude the filing by the applicant of a second request for provisional measures based on additional elements? It is this original situation that the Competition Authority was confronted with in (...)

In a ruling handed down on 24 June 2015 in the Île-de-France high school markets case, the Paris Court of Appeal had the opportunity to reiterate the primacy of the judicial judge in private enforcement matters, by affirming its full jurisdiction for actions for damages brought against the (...)

On 19 June 2015, the European Commission launched a market test of the commitments offered by Bulgarian Energy Holding ("BEH") to remedy the competition concerns identified by the Commission regarding a risk of abuse of a dominant position on the wholesale electricity market in Bulgaria. The (...)

On 4 June 2015, the Competition Authority issued a decision by which it accepted and made binding the commitments proposed by TDF. These commitments are designed to meet the competition concerns revealed by the market test launched on 3 February 2015 concerning the hosting of operators on mast (...)

The period under review is relatively rich in terms of private enforcement, since after the affair of the Île-de-France high school markets (see above), it is now the turn of the private enforcement agencies to take action.), it is an action for compensation in the so-called high-voltage cable (...)

The ruling handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal on 28 May 2015 in the Historic Monuments case further clarifies the way in which a company’s membership of a large group must be taken into account, in France, when calculating the financial penalty. The High Court ruling of 18 February (...)

On 13 May 2015, the Competition Authority published a market test of the proposed commitments in the overseas consumer goods distribution sector. These undertakings are designed to remedy the competition concerns relating to exclusive supply arrangements between four manufacturers (Bolton (...)

On May 7, 2015, the Competition Authority launched a market test of the booking modalities for the Goûter refuge, a compulsory passage on the royal road to the summit of Mont Blanc. Competition concerns relate firstly to the quota of 24 places reserved for only two guide companies, those of (...)

Following the referral to the French Competition Authority by the main French hotel syndicates and the Accor group, competition concerns were raised regarding the implementation of the parity obligations contained in the contracts between the hotel owners and the leader in booking sites, (...)

On 15 April 2015, the Competition Authority made binding commitments proposed by SNCF, SNCF Mobilités and their subsidiaries Keolis and SNCF Partenariat on the technical assistance market. These commitments are intended to remedy competition concerns relating to the tangible or intangible (...)

Brief mention should be made of the ruling handed down by the Court of Cassation on 24 April 2015 in the case of image-cheque exchange commissions. It is known that the interbank commissions in question gave rise to a sanction decision by the Authority (Aut. conc., dec. no. 10-D-28, dec. no. (...)

Concluding observations, Procedural Notice of 3 Apr. 2015 on the French leniency programme The Competition Authority issued on 3 April 2015 its new Procedural Notice on the leniency programme. The new text does not substantially modify the leniency procedure as it was applied under the (...)

Following the Google v. NavX case (TC Paris, 27 December 2012, RG 2010070465), the 15th Chamber of the Paris Commercial Court, in its judgment of 30 March 2015, once again ruled on the compensation consequences of a commitment procedure before the French Competition Authority (hereinafter ’the (...)

Also noteworthy is a judgment handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal on March 26, 2015, on an appeal against the decision of the French Competition Authority sanctioning a practice of ousting the generic of the drug princeps Subutex®, in which two procedural questions were debated: the first (...)

Cass. com, 4 March 2015, Brenntag, No. Z 14-40052 In a judgment dated 4 March 2015, the Commercial Chamber of the French Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed a priority constitutionality question ("QPC") brought by Brenntag in the appeal pending against Decision No. 13-D-12 of 28 May 2013 of (...)

Aut. conc., Dec. no. 15-D-02 of 26 Feb. 2015 relating to compliance by the EIG "Les Indépendants" with the commitments made in Competition Council Decision no. 06-D-29 of 6 Oct. 2006. The decision handed down by the Competition Authority on 26 February 2015 against the EIG "Les Indépendants" (...)

Cass. crim. 25 Feb. 2015, Colas rail, No. 13-87794 Unibéton, Cemex France gestion and Cemex béton Sud-est, n° 13-87795 Colas midi méditerranée, n° 13-87796 The Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation handed down three judgments dated 25 February 2015 which ruled, apparently definitively, (...)

Aut. conc., Feb. 3, 2015, Market test of the mobile operators’ hosting sector on mast sites On 3 February 2015, the Competition Authority launched a market test of the commitments proposed by TDF to remedy the competition concerns identified in the market for the hosting of mobile operators (...)

Aut. conc., Dec. no. 14-D-19 of 18 Dec. 2014 on practices in the cleaning products and insecticides sector and in the hygiene and personal care products sector. The Household and Personal Care and Hygiene Products case is not only attracting attention because of the record level of fines (...)

Aut. conc., December 15, 2014, Market Test of Hotel Reservation Platforms ; Eur. comm., 15 December 2014, Press release IP/14/2661: "Commission announces launch of market consultations by French, Swedish and Italian competition authorities in the context of investigations in the online hotel (...)

On 18 November 2014, the French Competition Authority launched a market test of the commitments proposed by SNCF and its subsidiary Keolis to remedy the competition concerns identified in the urban transport market and the ancillary markets for advice and technical assistance to transport (...)

In a case condemning a new cartel practice in the military removals sector, the Competition Authority had the opportunity to clarify - if not to go back on - the meaning of the procedural notice of 10 February 2012 concerning the failure to contest the objections. The investigation services (...)

In January 2012, the Commission opened a formal investigation into the cooperation between three members of the Skyteam alliance, namely Air France/KLM, Alitalia and Delta, for the transport of passengers on routes between Europe and North America. These three airlines had concluded agreements (...)

Following the historic monuments case at the beginning of 2014, the Court of Cassation once again calls the Paris Court of Appeal and the Competition Authority to order regarding the conditions under which membership of a group may be taken into consideration in the calculation of a financial (...)

This column, like the previous ones in recent years, illustrates once again the development of litigation and the new problems - under various aspects - related to access to the authorities’ files. In the case in point, it is a question of protecting business secrecy. While judgments on this (...)

CA Paris, October 9, 2014, Canal Plus, RG 2014/16759 ;Paris Board of Directors, October 31, 2014, GDF Suez, RG 2014/19335 The period under review was marked by two much-awaited rulings by the Paris Court of Appeal concerning the nature and scope of the measures that may be ordered as (...)

On 2 October 2014, the Competition Authority published a decision by which it accepts and makes binding the commitments entered into by SNCF following a complaint lodged by AS Voyages. AS Voyages complained about the more favourable treatment given by SNCF to voyages-sncf.com compared to other (...)

With this ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal of 24 September 2014, Eco-Emballages, the case law debate on the procedures for the production of documents covered by the secrecy of the investigation before the Competition Authority (Article L. 463-6 C. com.) in the context of a compensation (...)

Following the adoption on 24 September 2014 of the decree implementing the law relating to consumption of 17 March 2014, known as the Hamon law, the group action came into force in France on 1 October 2014. This decree, which supplements Title II of Book IV of the Consumer Code with a (...)

The decision handed down by the French Competition Authority on 9 September 2014 against GDF Suez provides a new illustration of the sometimes very significant scope of the measures that it is likely to pronounce as a precautionary measure. Ruling on a complaint accompanied by a request for (...)

On 4 September 2014, the Competition Authority published a decision in which it makes binding the commitments entered into by Nespresso following a complaint lodged by two of its competitors who manufacture capsules compatible with Nespresso machines. The commitments proposed by Nespresso (...)

On 4 August 2014, a bill on the simplification, clarification and updating of the Commercial Code was submitted to the Senate Presidency. Chapter III of the proposed law groups together provisions relating to the Competition Authority. While the first three articles relate to merger control, (...)

The period under review saw the Authority issue two important decisions on provisional measures, one in the sports rights sector and the other in the energy sector. The first of these (the second being commented on later in these columns) concerned the granting of exclusive rights to the (...)

Eur. Comm, 7 July 2014, Communication to the European Parliament and the Council, Ten years of Antitrust Enforcement under Regulation 1/2003: Achievements and Future Perspectives (COM(2014) 453 9 July 2014, Staff Working Document: Ten Years of Antitrust Enforcement under Regulation 1/2003 (...)

One might have thought that the order of 13 November 2008 had definitively closed the debate on the right of companies to benefit from the assistance of a lawyer during competition inspections, by expressly enshrining this right in Article L. 450-4 of the Commercial Code. Recent (...)

On 19 June 2014, the Paris Court of Appeal handed down its first ruling in the case of the so-called on net and off net tariff differentiations implemented in the mobile telephony market. It will be recalled that, in a decision dated December 13, 2012, the French Competition Authority (...)

Aut. conc. market test of 17 April 2014 concerning the commitments proposed by Nespresso Aut. conc. market test of 28 April 2014 concerning the commitments proposed by the SNCF Eur. comm., April 29, 2014, Dec. 9 R. 1/2003 Samsung, Case COMP/39.939 The period under review is marked by a (...)

The Competition Authority published a study on its leniency programme on 15 April. The study was carried out to enable the Authority "to gain a better understanding of the experience of practitioners and the practical difficulties encountered", and in particular the parameters that encourage (...)

While the entry into force of Regulation 1/2003 almost 10 years ago (on 1 May 2004) obliged Member States to align their national antitrust rules with EU law, its effects went far beyond the substantive rules alone. This logic of convergence has rapidly extended to the implementing rules (...)

This article brings together 3 contributions from the conference "A new vision of the economic regulation" held in Paris the 24th September 2013 and organized by the French competition Authority and the French Council of State. The whole of conference contributions is under publication at the (...)

In merger control, Member States have the possibility to intervene for general interest purposes. The scope of their intervention nevertheless depends on whether European Law applies or not. These limitations apply to the veto rights of the French Ministry of Economic Affairs. The analysis of (...)

On 18 December 2013, the Commission made legally binding the final commitments offered by Deutsche Bahn with regard to its traction current charging system in Germany. After having informed Deutsche Bahn of the competition concerns identified on a preliminary basis in June 2013, the (...)

Criminal case, 27.11.13, Europcar France, dec. n° 12-86424 On 27 November, the Court of Cassation handed down two rulings that shed interesting light on the role of the lawyer during competition inspections. The Court ruled on appeals brought by Boston scientific and Europcar against (...)

After some hesitation, is the case law on the link between the secrecy of the investigation before the Authority guaranteed by Article L. 463-6 of the Commercial Code and the production of documents resulting from it in a compensation dispute (finally) finding its way? This is what the (...)

The Competition Authority has put online recommendations on the submission of economic studies. These recommendations are intended to apply to litigation procedures as well as to notification procedures and merger control. The preamble to the communiqué stresses the need to communicate these (...)

On 30 October 2013, the Competition Authority launched a market test of the commitments proposed by GIE PMU in order to address the competition concerns identified regarding the use by GIE PMU of its legal monopoly on hard-door horse betting to develop its online horse betting business. This (...)

CA Paris, 30 October 2013, CEMEX France Gestion CA Paris, October 30, 2013, Colas Rail Three rulings and twenty years of proceedings later, the road works case in the Var department continues to feed this chronicle by offering us new rulings from the Paris Court of Appeal of October 30, (...)

The position taken by the Court of Cassation with regard to the admissibility of the Competition Authority’s appeals is also noteworthy in this case. In the present case, the parties contested the admissibility of the appeal by the President of the Authority on the basis of the provisions of (...)

With this decision, the Court of Cassation takes a stand in the debate on whether the manifestly excessive consequences of the payment of the fine should be analysed at the level of the sanctioned entity alone or whether, on the contrary, the group to which this entity belongs should be taken (...)

On 17 October 2013, the Commission invited interested companies to comment on commitments offered by Samsung Electronics (’Samsung’) regarding the enforcement of essential patents related to a standard held by Samsung in the field of mobile communications. After opening an investigation in (...)

Judgments of the courts ruling on the Competition Authority’s soft law acts are rare, if not almost non-existent to date. Thus, prior to the judgment under review, the Paris Court of Appeal had only had the opportunity to rule twice on the Authority’s communiqué of 16 May 2011 on the method (...)

The new decision of the Paris Court of Appeal in the Drapo software case, handed down on referral after cassation, gave it the opportunity to confirm the inapplicability of the ten-year statute of limitations to acts lawfully adopted before its entry into force. In reversing its initial (...)

Fr. NCA, 20.09.13, dec. 13-D-18 relative to practices of Visa in the sector of payment cards On 20 September 2013, in the context of two proceedings initiated by the Competition Authority following a referral by the Fédération des entreprises du Commerce et de la Distribution, the Authority (...)

In the field of competition, three main measures in the draft (as voted by the Senate at second reading) are worth noting. Creation of a group share The draft law introduces the class action procedure under French law, for which all regional courts will have jurisdiction, to allow (...)

Announced during the election campaign, the government tabled a bill on 2 May 2013 aimed - among other things - at introducing a class action procedure under French law to allow compensation for damages suffered by consumers as a result of anti-competitive practices in particular. This bill (...)

In a press release dated July 25, 2013, the French Competition Authority announced that it had closed the proceedings between Free and Orange on the basis of an agreement reached between the two parties. In this case, Free had complained to the French Competition Authority about the (...)

The period under review gave the Conseil d’État the opportunity to rule for the third time in a few months on the scope of certain soft law acts of the Competition Authority. In this case, it was a new opinion issued on referral of its own motion pursuant to Article L. 462-4 of the Commercial (...)

The aftermath of the so-called Orange Caraïbes case gave the Paris Court of Appeal the opportunity to rule, in a ruling of July 4, 2013, on the scope of the protection of business confidentiality and the effects attached to its possible disregard. The question put to the Court of Appeal (...)

Conc. aut. conc. market test, May 6, 2013, MasterCard vs. Visa cards Dec. Eur. comm. of 10 April 2013, CEZ, aff. AT/39727 Eur. Comm. 23 May 2013, Dec. C(2013) 2836 final, Continental v. United v. Lufthansa v. Air Canada Comm. eur, art. 27, § 4 R. 1/2003, Google, aff. AT/39740 of April (...)

In a ruling dated June 11, 2013, the Court of Cassation definitively ended the debate on the compliance with Article 6 of the ECHR of the time limit for the proceedings leading to the Authority’s decision in the perfumes case. In this case, which gave rise to an initial judgment of censure on (...)

In addition to its contributions on the substantive issues, in particular the concept of complex and continuous infringement (see the Cartel column), the Competition Authority’s decision of 28 May 2013 will also be of interest for its contributions on the procedural level and in particular for (...)

Consumer bill registered at the Presidency of the National Assembly on 2 May 2013 See also Alain Ronzano, Christophe Lemaire, Benoît Hamon: "Benoît Hamon : Un droit de la consommation plus efficace pour une économie plus compétitive", ConcurrencesNo. 2-2013, art. No. 52033, pp. 7-11 This (...)

Decision of 25 February 2013 fixing the tariff for the making available by the Competition Authority of electronic documents on digital media Decree no. 2012-822 of June 26, 2012 authorized the French Competition Authority to receive compensation for certain services rendered to public or (...)

Cass. com, December 18, 2012, No. 11-28786. Criminal Code, February 27, 2013, No. 11-88470. Criminal Code, February 27, 2013, No. 11-88471. Criminal Code, 27 February 2013, No. 11-82446. Criminal Code, February 27, 2013, No. 11-82447. In five rulings, including one in a tax case (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 13-D-06 of 28 February 2013 relating to practices implemented in the market for the remote transmission of tax and accounting data in EDI format to the tax authorities In this decision, the Competition Authority sanctions the Conseil supérieur de l’ordre des (...)

Convening Decree No. 13-D-07 of February 28, 2013, relating to a referral from E-kanopi In this case, E-Kanopi, publisher of several thematic sites and a search page, referred to the Competition Authority practices committed by Google which allegedly amounted to an abrupt termination of a (...)

Aut. Concord, Dec. 12-D-29 of 21 December 2012 relating to practices observed in the sector of distribution of supplementary insurance for golf players. Aut. Conc. 13.02.13, market test, Maersk, Marfret and WEC During the period under review, the Competition Authority issued a commitment (...)

Criminal Code, April 24, 2013, Société Alain X, No. 12-80332. Criminal Case, April 24, 2013, Saint Gobain Isover, No. 12-80335. Criminal Code, April 24, 2013, National Union of Manufacturers of Insulation of Manufactured Mineral Wool Insulation, No. 12-80336. Criminal Records, 24 April (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 13 November 2012, Grands Moulins de Strasbourg The economic crisis we are going through is leading, both at European and national level, to interesting discussions on how to take these difficulties into account when calculating the fine (the problem of contributory (...)

The LME Act supplemented the advisory powers previously held by the Competition Council (see Articles L. 462-1 to L. 462-3 of the Commercial Code) by giving the new Competition Authority a much broader power, that of "taking the initiative to give an opinion on any matter concerning (...)

In addition to the question of reasonable time (see this column, supra), the judgment of 11 October 2012 in the Historic Monuments case gave the Paris Court of Appeal the opportunity to rule on two other procedural points, one relating to the rules of limitation and the other to the (...)

The competition authorities united in the European Competition Network ("ECN") continue their convergence work on leniency. On 22 November 2012, the ECN approved a new version of the Model Leniency Programme of 29 September 2006. The aim of this document is to improve legal certainty and ease (...)

The European Competition Network is increasingly transparent. This is evidenced by the publication on 31 October 2012 of two important reports prepared by the working group entitled "cooperation issues and due process". A first report is devoted to the investigative powers of the member (...)

On October 12, 2012, the French Constitutional Court rendered a long-awaited decision on the priority constitutionality issue raised by Canal Plus and Vivendi following the withdrawal by the French Competition Authority of the decision authorizing the acquisition of TPS by Canal Plus in 2006 (...)

By judgment of 11 October 2012 in the Historic Monuments Case (see Dec. No. 11-D-02 of 26 January 2011 on practices implemented in the restoration of historical monuments), the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the high standard of proof required to establish a violation of the principle of (...)

Cass. com, 09.10.12, Appeal No. 10-28718. This decision of the Court of Cassation provides an interesting clarification regarding the investigative powers of rapporteurs and the principle of fair evidence. The procedural context ---- In this case, Europ Power Technology, a company active (...)

By two orders dated August 31, 2012, the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal validated respectively the legality of the order authorizing the inspections carried out on the premises of the various entities of the Amaury group, and the conduct of these inspections, in the context of (...)

CE, Order of September 17, 2012, No. 362330, Canal Plus Group and Vivendi Universal In an order dated September 17, 2012, the Conseil d’État ruled on an application for interim injunction filed by Canal Plus and Vivendi Universal against the decision issued by the French Competition (...)

During the period under review, the Competition Authority issued three commitment decisions. For its part, the Commission launched four market tests. Three new commitment decisions by the Competition Authority ---- Firstly, on 5 July 2012, the Competition Authority issued a decision in which (...)

Should we see in the recent jurisprudence of the Paris Court of Appeal a (distant) echo of Sully’s famous words that "Ploughing and grazing are the two teats of France"? After the endives producers last June, this time it is the millers who have been granted, by two orders of the First (...)

After the Court of Cassation in its rulings of 17 January and 20 March 2012 (see our comments Concurrences No. 2-2012, pp. 137-39), it is the regulatory power that has drawn all the consequences of the Vebic judgment of the Court of Justice (CJEU, 7 December 2010, Vebic, C-493/08, Concurrences (...)

On 27 June 2012, the Commission issued a press release announcing the adoption of a decision imposing a total fine of €13 million on manufacturers of water management products for violation of the competition rules. In this case, three companies, Flamco, Reflex and Pneumatex have for almost (...)

By three orders dated 26 June 2012, the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal suspended the sanctions imposed by the Competition Authority in the case relating to practices implemented in the endives sector, in view of the delicate economic situation of the companies concerned. The (...)

Study on "Collective Redress in Antitrust", requested by the European Parliament’s Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs, June 2012 (PE 475.120). The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs of the European Parliament published on 19 June 2012 a study on collective redress entitled (...)

ECN, Resolution of the Meeting of Heads of the European Competition Authorities, "Protection of leniency material in the context of civil damages actions", 23 May 2012 As the debate on access to documents of competition authorities, in particular in the context of cartels detected through (...)

Cass. com, 15 May 2012, Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, No. 11-18507 As could have been anticipated, the Court of Cassation, in a decision of 15 May 2012, censured the decision handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal on 5 May 2011 in the Drapo software case (on this decision (...)

In an order issued on May 15, 2012, the delegate of the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal declared inadmissible the appeals filed by France Telecom against the inspection and seizure operations carried out at its various premises on December 9, 2010. Following a complaint by (...)

The fourth roundtable of the conference “New frontiers of Antitrust”, Paris, 10 February 2012, was dedicated to the distinction between anticompetitive object and anticompetitive effect. In the first contribution, Richard Whish, Professor at the King’s College of London, provides some (...)

On 11 April 2012, the First Chamber of the Commercial Court of Paris issued a new decision on the sensitive issue and discussed the production of documents from the Authority’s file before the commercial courts. An original action for damages ---- A relatively original civil action was (...)

Criminal Case, 4 April 2012, Grands Moulins de Paris, No. 10-85282. Criminal Records, 4 April 2012, France Farine, No. 10-85283. On April 4, 2012, the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation rejected two appeals filed against orders of the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal, (...)

Cass. crim. 4 April 2012, Autorité de la concurrence and Société Urbaine de travaux, No. 10-88192. This case concerned the legality of a visit and seizure order which had been partially annulled by an order of 2 November 2010 of the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal. The Court of (...)

Conc. conc. aut. market test of 3 April 2012 concerning the commitments proposed by France Telecom - Internet interconnection Aut. conc. market test of 10 April 2012 concerning the commitments proposed by eleven banks and the French Banking Federation - Non-cash means of payment other than (...)

The issue of the use (or communication) before the civil court of documents from the Competition Authority’s file is undoubtedly growing in importance, as the recent judgments of the 15th Chamber of the Paris Commercial Court dated March 16, 2012, further demonstrate. The first concerns the (...)

Aut. conc. decision of 14 March 2012 amending the Competition Authority’s rules of procedure, JORF of 1 April 2012 The period under review is marked by the publication in the Official Journal on 1 April 2012 of a decision of the Competition Authority amending its rules of procedure. The (...)

Concordant Aut. dec. no. 12-D-09 of 13 March 2012 on practices implemented in the food flour sector Decision No 12-D-09 of 13 March 2012 by which the Competition Authority sanctioned 17 producers of bagged flour to the tune of EUR 242.4 million provides a good illustration of the cooperation (...)

Cass. crim. 7 March 2012, Société urbaine de travaux, n°10-88196 On March 7, 2012, the Criminal Division of the Cour de Cassation rejected the appeal brought by Urbaine de Travaux seeking the annulment of the order of the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal ruling on the regularity (...)

Concordance, market test of 23 February 2012 on the commitments proposed by Presstalis European Commission, Market test of 14 March 2012 concerning commitments proposed by Siemens and Areva, Case COMP/B1/39.736, OJEU No C. 75, 14 March 2012, p. 10. During the period under review, the (...)

Cass. com, November 15, 2011, Veolia Transport, Keolis, Transdev, n° 10-20527, 10-20851 and 10-20881 Cass. com, November 2, 2011, Colas rail, n° 10-21103 In two judgments dated 2 November and 15 November 2011, the Court of Cassation had the opportunity to confirm the incompatibility with (...)

Cass. com, November 15, 2011, Veolia Transport, Keolis, Transdev, n° 10-20527, 10-20851 and 10-20881 The period under review gave the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation the opportunity to rule, in its judgment of 15 November 2011 in the Urban Public Passenger Transport case, on a (...)

Criminal Case, 16 November 2011, Banques populaires participations, No. 10-85270 Criminal case, 16 November 2011, BPCE, No. 10-85273 Criminal records, 19 October 2011, Crédit Mutuel de Guilers and others, No. 10-85269. Criminal Code, November 3, 2011, Banque populaire de l’Ouest, No. (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 4 October 2011, TNT Express National and SNC TNT Express France, RG 10/23198 CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 4 October 2011, Geodis Division Messagerie Services GMDS, RG 10/23202 The year 2010 had ended on a hopeful note with the decision of the delegate of the First President of the (...)

While case law relating to Article L. 463-6 of the French Commercial Code has so far been extremely rare, the years 2010/2011 undeniably mark a turning point in this area. Indeed, after the Court of Cassation in 2010 (Cass. com., 19 January 2010, Semavem v. JVC, Concurrences No. 2-2010, obs. (...)

(On the decisions of the Competition Authority, see also above, column "Unilateral practices"). Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-D-14 of 20 October 2011 relating to practices implemented in the funeral sector in the Manche department Council Decision No. 11-D-18 of 15 December 2011 on practices (...)

on second reference after cassation, against Cons. conc., dec. no.05-D-66 of 5 December 2005, "consumer electronics products". In a ruling of 16 February 2012, the Paris Court of Appeal, ruling on a referral after cassation in the TVHA case, took note of the High Court’s censorship ruling, (...)

Cass. com, February 14, 2012, Cemex bétons Sud-Est e.a., n° 11-11750 and 11-13130, "ready-mixed concrete sector in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region". Decidedly the old case of Ready-mixed Concrete never ends! Once again the Court of Cassation censors a judgment of the Court of Appeal in (...)

This set of articles explores the case of breach of commitments in competition proceedings. Recent cases, in France and abroad, have highlited issues that commitments monitoring may cause. Thierry Dahan and Christophe Lemaire express here the lawyers general point of view in antitrust law, (...)

Although this judgment does not concern procedural issues, it should be noted (given the rarity of the event) that the Commission intervened before the Court of Cassation as amicus curiae on the issue of the definition of the concept of effect on trade between Member States. Such intervention (...)

(see also, supra, "Agreements" column, obs. M. Debroux). CA Paris, ch. 5-7, January 26, 2012, Beauté Prestige International and others; on second reference after cassation, against Cons. conc. dec. no. 06-D-04 of March 13, 2006, luxury perfumery sector The Paris Court of Appeal has ruled (...)

Criminal Case, 11 January 2012, General Rapporteur of the Competition Authority and Society 10 Media, No. 10-85446 In a ruling on 11 January 2012, the court of cassation affirmed the full applicability of ordinary law on inspections and seizures to news media companies, censuring an order by (...)

Criminal Code, 11 January 2012, General Rapporteur of the Competition Authority, No. 10-88193. Criminal Code, 11 January 2012, General Rapporteur of the Competition Authority, No. 10-88194. Criminal Code, 11 January 2012, General Rapporteur of the Competition Authority, No. 10-88197. As (...)

Interview conducted by Christophe Lemaire, Partner Ashurst, Associate professor, University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne. Pierre Cardo, pourriez-vous brièvement retracer votre parcours? J’ai débuté ma carrière comme cadre en gestion des ressources humaines des groupes BSN et PSA. J’ai été (...)

Bill to strengthen the rights, protection and information of consumers, No. 3508, tabled on 1 June 2011 and adopted at first reading by the National Assembly on 11 October 2011 The period under review is marked by the adoption at first reading by the National Assembly of the bill (...)

While the year 2011 was marked by a new round of consultations by the European Commission on civil actions (first on a coherent European approach to collective actions, then on the quantification of damages) and litigation before the Court of Justice on access to authorities’ documents is (...)

Aut. conc. opinion No. 11-A-11 of July 12, 2011 on contract negotiation methods in the livestock sector in a context of volatile agricultural commodity prices. (See also, supra, "Agreements" column, obs. Mr. Debroux) It is known that the Minister has the power to request the Authority "on (...)

Concordant Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-D-11 of 7 July 2011 relating to practices implemented by the Groupement des Cartes Bancaires Aut. conc. market test of 21 July 2011 concerning the commitments proposed by the Arcachon hospital centre, the Groupement des Praticiens en Imagerie Médicale du (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-D-10 of July 6, 2011 relating to compliance by the city of Marseille with the commitments made in Competition Council Decision no. 08-D-34 of December 22, 2008 (See also, supra, "Unilateral Practices" column, obs. F. Marty) The undertakers’ sector, which has already (...)

Criminal Code, June 29, 2011, Schering-Plough Corporation, No. 10-85479. One would almost wonder today whether it is necessary to mention the High Court’s judgments confirming the method of global seizure of computer files, and the principle of unbreakability which forms the basis for it, so (...)

Cass. com. June 21, 2011, Colas Midi-Méditerranée, No. 09-67793, "public contracts in the Var department". Life is definitely not a long river of peace for the appeal set up on a transitional basis by Order No. 2008 1161 of 13 November 2008 against the orders for authorisation of visits and (...)

Cass. crim, 16 June 2011, Rapporteur General of the Competition Authority v/ Order of the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal, No. 11-80345 Decidedly, it does not seem obvious in France to make things move in terms of computer seizures if we judge by the ruling handed down by the (...)

Criminal case, 18 May 2011, ONYX Languedoc Roussillon and ONYX Méditerranée, n° 10-80019 Cass. crim. 16 June 2011, ETDE and others, no. 10-80017, "electrical equipment sector". Cass. crim. 16 June 2011, Stereau and GTM environnement, n° 10-80016, "Construction and extension of wastewater (...)

Law No. 2011-525 of 17 May 2011 to simplify and improve the quality of law, JORF No. 115 of 18 May 2011 Published in the Official Journal of 18 May 2011, Law No. 2011 525 of 17 May 2011 on simplifying and improving the quality of law excluded documents drawn up or held by the Competition (...)

Aut. conc., press release of 16 May 2011 on the method for determining financial penalties, available on the Authority’s website On 16 May 2011, the Competition Authority published its procedural notice on sanctions, following a public consultation on a first draft of the notice, which was (...)

Aut. conc,. dec. no. 11-MC-01 of 12 May 2011 relating to the request for interim measures submitted by Kiala France and Kiala SA in the parcel delivery sector (See also, supra, "Unilateral Practices" column, obs. A.-L. Sibony) There are two procedural issues in this case, which originated (...)

06-D-07 de la CA Paris, ch. 5-7, of 5 May 2011, Razel and Sefi-Intrafor; on reference after cassation, against Cons. conc. dec. no. 06-D-07 of 21 March 2006, "Logiciel Drapo". On 5 May, the Paris Court of Appeal handed down a ruling in the Île-de-France region public procurement case which, (...)

CJEU, 3 May 2011, Tele2 Polska, Case C-375/09 The Court of Justice of the European Union has so far had very few opportunities to rule on the provisions of Regulation 1/2003 since its entry into force on 1 May 2004. For that reason alone, the judgment of 3 May 2011, delivered in the Grand (...)

National Assembly, Information report tabled pursuant to Rule 145-7 of the Rules of Procedure by the Economic Affairs Committee on the implementation of Law No. 2008-776 of 4 August 2008 on the modernisation of the economy, presented by Ms Catherine Vautrin and Mr Jean Gaubert. The period (...)

Cass. com, March 29, 2011, Manpower France holding e.a., n° 10-12913 and 10-13686, "Temporary employment sector". The ruling handed down on 29 March 2011 in the so-called temporary work case, which has already given rise to several comments in this column (v. ConcurrencesNo. 2 2009, (...)

Criminal Case, February 23, 2011, DGCCRF, No. 09-87847, "Owens Illinois Sales and Distribution France". Criminal Records, 23 February 2011, Onyx Languedoc-Roussillon, No. 09-87848. Criminal Case, February 23, 2011, DGCCRF, no. 09-87849, "Saint-Gobain Emballage". The Court of Cassation (...)

on remand after cassation, against Cons. conc. 97-D-39 of 17 June 1997 on practices implemented by various undertakings in the ready-mixed concrete sector in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region In the most recent part of the Ready-mixed Concrete case in the PACA region, which has already (...)

on remand after cassation, against Cons. conc., dec. no. 97-D-39 of 17 June 1997 on practices implemented by various firms in the ready-mixed concrete sector in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The third lesson of the Court of Appeal’s decision in the Ready-mixed Concrete case (...)

Cass. com, 18 January 2011, Mr and Mrs X..., Mr and Mrs Y...and Sodipro, No. 09-70397 Cass. com, January 18, 2011, Europroperties investment, n° 10-11777 Cass. com, January 18, 2011, Mr. Y... , No. 10-11778 The debate on the global seizure of computer files in the context of searches is (...)

Eur. comm., 13 January 2011, Greek Lignite and Electricity Markets, Case COMP/38700 The period under review is marked by the publication of a new market test by the European Commission (see also, this review, column "Unilateral practices", obs. F. Marty). Indeed, on 14 January 2011, the (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 13 January 2011, Cemex Beton Sud-est e.a.; on reference after cassation against Cons. conc., dec. no. 97-D-39 of 17 June 1997, ready-mixed concrete sector in the Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur region The companies implicated in this case had been granted by the Court of (...)

In this ruling, the plenary session of the Court of Cassation cut short the resistance of the Paris Court of Appeal, which had persisted in admitting the legality of telephone recordings obtained without the knowledge of the companies concerned in its ruling of 29 April 2009, despite the (...)

The law establishing a New Organisation for the Electricty Market provides for a temporary regulation which aims at removing the obstacles to the development of competition on the French electricity market. Its purpose is in particular to solve the margin squeeze resulting from the difference (...)

Concordance No. 10-D-39 of 22 December 2010 on practices implemented in the vertical road signage industry The present case, which concerns a cartel for the allocation of public procurement contracts in the road sign market and to which were added exclusionary practices, two of which have (...)

ECHR, 21 December 2010, Canal Plus a.o. v. France, 29408/08 ECHR, 21 December 2010, Primagaz v. France, 29613/08 The Canal Plus and Primagaz judgments of the European Court of Human Rights ("ECHR") are likely to have a significant impact on ongoing litigation that gave rise to nationwide (...)

Concordance No. 10-D-36, Dec. 17, 2010 on practices in the packaged liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) sector The fifth decision implementing the leniency procedure adopted by the French Competition Authority will certainly be one of the important leniency decisions, but not for the scale of the (...)

In this case, the French Supreme Court (Cour de cassation) was called upon to rule on the decision handed down by the Paris Court of Appeals on referral after cassation, in the luxury perfumescase. (decision 06-D-04), and more specifically on the Court of Appeal’s application of the principle (...)

CA Paris (ord.), ch. 5-7, 2 November 2010, SADE-CGTH v/ Competition Authority, RG 10/01894, relating to challenges to the regularity of the conduct of visits and seizures carried out on 15 December 2009. CA Paris (ord.), ch. 5-7, November 2, 2010, X c/ Competition Authority, relating to (...)

Cass. com, 15 October 2010, Système U and GALEC, No. 10-40039 Cass. com, October 15, 2010, Expedia, n° 10-14881 Cass. com, October 15, 2010, Karavel, n° 10-14866 Criminal Records, 20 October 2010, Piwnica and Molinié, No. 10-81748. Criminal Case, 20 October 2010, Hémery and Thomas-Raquin, No. (...)

Const. dec. no. 10-D-30 of 28 September 2010 on practices implemented in the Internet advertising sector The period under review provides a further illustration of the use of the commitment procedure at the national level. Following a complaint from Navx (using Google AdWords’ online (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 10-D-28 of 20 September 2010 on the rates and related conditions applied by banks and financial institutions for the processing of cheques submitted for collection By Decision No 10-D-28 of 20 September 2010, the French Competition Authority (AdlC), in a decision No (...)

Concordant Aut. dec. no. 10-D-27 of September 15, 2010 relating to practices implemented by the companies Manufacture française des pneumatiques Michelin and Pneumatiques Kléber Aut. conc. dec. n° 10-D-29 of 27 September 2010 relating to the practices implemented by Eco-Emballages and (...)

Decree no. 2010-687 of 24 June 2010 relating to the organisation and missions of State services in the Ile-de-France region and departments Decree no. 2010-1010 of 30 August 2010 on the designation of the administrative authorities competent to settle or refer matters to the civil or (...)

Eur. Commission, dec. art. 9 Reg. 1/2003, 14 July 2010, BA/AA/IB, case COMP/39.596 The period under review is marked by the adoption by the European Commission of a decision on commitments in the transatlantic passenger air transport sector. On 14 July 2010, the Commission accepted (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 10-D-21 of 30 June 2010 relating to compliance by Neopost France and Satas with the commitments made in Competition Council decision no. 05-D-49 of 25 July 2005. The Neopost v Satas decision is the first in which the AdlC sanctions non-compliance with commitments made in (...)

Criminal Code, 15 June 2010, Banks, No. 09-86073. Cass. crim. 15 June 2010, Société des eaux de Marseille, No. 10-80018. Cass. ass. plen. 18 June 2010, Total Réunion, No. 09-72655 Cass. com, 17 September 2010, Randstad, No. 10-13686 Criminal Code, 22 September 2010, Insulation Products, No. (...)

Cass. com, 15 June 2010, Ajinomoto Eurolysine v/ Doux aliments Bretagne e.a., n° 09-15816 While the end of the year is marked by the relaunch at Community level of the debates on private action (see not. J. Alumnia, "Common standards for group claims across the EU", Speech 10/554 of 15 Oct. (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 1 June 2010, Canal 9 c/ GIE Les Indépendants on remand after cassation, against Cons. conc. 06-D-29 of 6 October 2006 relating to practices implemented by the GIE Les Indépendants in the radio advertising sector We will not return to the circumstances of the Canal 9 case, (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, June 15, 2010, Veolia Transport and others. on remand after cassation, against Cons. conc. 05-D-38 of July 5, 2005, urban public passenger transport market CA Paris, ch. 5-7, June 29, 2010, Colas Rail e.a. against Aut. conc., Dec. no. 09-D-25 of 29 July 2009, practices of (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 10-D-18 of 14 June 2010 relating to practices implemented by the Pas-de-Calais General Council, the Groupement de défense sanitaire du bétail du Pas de Calais and the Groupement technique vétérinaire du Pas de Calais Concordance No. 10-D-20 of 25 June 2010 on practices (...)

FOT Report, Drivers of Compliance and Non-Compliance with Competition Law, FOT 1227, May 2010 In France, the Competition Authority released a study entitled "État des lieux et perspectives des programmes de conformité" in September 2008 (available on the website of the Competition Authority, (...)

Eur. Commission, Dec. art. 9 Reg. 1/2003, 04.05.10, E.ON AG, case COMP/39.317, see IP/10/494 and MEMO/10/164 Eur. Comm. 27(4), Reg. 1/2003, 28.05.10, MiFID Visa, box COMP/39.398, OJ C138, 28 May 2010, p. 34. The Commission has adopted a decision and published a market test. On the one (...)

The European Commission publishes the first two editions of the ECN brief, a newsletter on the activities of the ECN The publication by the Commission of the first two issues of the ECN Brief, dated 28 January and 31 March 2010, is welcomed. This newsletter on the activities of the European (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 10-D-08 of March 3, 2010 relating to practices implemented by Carrefour in the local general food retail sector This decision of the Competition Authority, relating to practices implemented by Carrefour with regard to its franchise network, is particularly noteworthy in (...)

It will be recalled that the Court of Cassation, in its ruling on the commitments of the GIE les Indépendants, established the principle that, in the context of the commitments procedure, the parties have a right of access to the entire file, subject only to the documents falling under the (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 26 January 2010, Adecco, ADIA, Manpower and others.against Cons. conc., Dec. no. 09-D-05 of 2 February 2009 on practices in the temporary work sector The case of temporary employment provides a new opportunity for the Court of Appeal to rule on the rules on business (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, 19 January 2010, AMD Sud-Ouest and others. against Cons. conc., Dec. no. 08-D-32 of 16 December 2008 on practices in the steel products trading sector The decision of the Paris Court of Appeal of 19 January 2010 in the steel products trading case, which is commented on (...)

While the scope of the secrecy of criminal investigations has been the subject of extensive case law, the exact scope of the secrecy of the investigation before the Competition Authority guaranteed by Article L. 463-6 of the French Commercial Code had never, to our knowledge, been specified by (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 10-D-01 of January 11, 2010 on practices implemented in the distribution of iPhones Concordant Aut. dec. no. 10-D-06 of February 26, 2010 relating to practices implemented by the Société des Téléphériques de la Grande Motte (SGTM) Convening Decision No. 10-D-09 of 9 March (...)

CA Paris, ch. 5-7, January 5, 2010, operating company of the company Pontasy, SARL and Transports Cerdans companyv. Council, Dec. No. 09-D-03 of 21 January 2009 on practices implemented in the school and interurban bus transport sector in the Pyrénées-Orientales department In this case, the (...)

– ECN Model Leniency Programme, Report on Assessment of the State of Convergence, 15 October 2009 While the adoption of Regulation 1/2003 has substantially amended the rules implementing Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty, it does not provide a formal legal basis for the harmonisation (...)

– CA Paris, ch 5-7, 6 October 2009, Canal 9 / GIE Les Indépendants, on referral after cassation, against Cons. conc. dec. no. 06 – D-29 relating to practices implemented by GIE Les Indépendants in the radio advertising sector. The G.I.E. Les Ind épendants case, which gave rise (...)

– CA Paris, ch 5-7, 6 October 2009, Canal 9 / GIE Les Indépendants, on referral after cassation, against Cons. conc. dec. no. 06-D-29 relating to practices implemented by GIE Les Indépendants in the radio advertising sector. The decision of the Paris Court of Appeal in the Canal 9 case (...)

– At the beginning of 2009, you left the Competition Council after having served there as general rapporteur for almost seven years. What do you take away from this experience? You do not believe in the improvements brought about by the reforms, for example the new powers of the Authority? By (...)

– Const. aut. market test, July 16, 2009, Passport photo booths EC Commission, com. art. 27,§4 R. 1/2003, Microsoft (Tied selling), aff. COMP/C-3/39.530, OJEU No. C. 242 of 9 October 2009, p. 20 We would point out the publication of two market tests, one at national level and the other (...)

– Council Decision No. 09-D-22 of 1 July 2009 on the preparation of a geographical information system project for the collection and treatment of waste by the company Eco-emballages. Council Regulation (EC) No 09-D-26 of 26 July 2009 on an application for interim measures submitted by DKT (...)

Could you briefly describe your career path? What in your experience at the DGCCRF seems to you to be of use to the Competition Authority? How do you intend to put into practice the prerogative granted to the Authority’s General Rapporteur to take the lead in investigations initiated by the (...)

Concordant Consent, Dec. 08-D-31 of December 10, 2008 relating to a referral from the company Competition The case brought by the company Competition offers a new opportunity for the Competition Council to take a position on the interpretation of the provisions relating to the protection of (...)

INSTITUTIONAL 1.Could you start by recalling the main changes in terms of the powers of the President and the College? What do you expect from these changes? 2.The reform renders obsolete the Cooperation Charter concluded between the DGCCRF and the Competition Council in 2005. Do you (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 08-D-32 of 16 December 2008 on practices implemented in the steel products trading sector Also in the steel trading case, the Competition Council was called upon to take a position on another leniency issue, that of the admissibility and probative value of the evidence (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 08-D-32 of 16 December 2008 on practices implemented in the steel products trading sector While this decision of the Competition Council will be of particular interest for the amount of the fine to which it gave rise (just over EUR 575 million in fines for the eleven (...)

Order 2008-1161 of 13 November 2008 modernising the regulation of competition, JORF of 14 November 2008, p. 8. The period under review was obviously marked by the publication of Order No. 2008-1161 of 13 November 2008 on the modernisation of competition regulation. This ordinance was (...)

Concordant Consensus, Dec. 08-D-26 of 5 November 2008 relating to practices implemented by the economic interest grouping (EIG) of UAT Abeilles taxis. Cons. conc. dec. no. 08-D-34 of 22 December 2008 relating to practices implemented by the municipal funeral directorate of Marseilles EC (...)

While the Court of Appeal has already had the opportunity to rule on the procedure for the engagement on several occasions (see not. CA Paris, 1re ch. 16 oct. 2007, Festina, ConcurrencesNo. 4-2007, obs. C. Momège CA Paris, 1re ch. 6 Nov. 2007, Canal 9 c/ GIE Les Indépendants, ConcurrencesNo. (...)

In the Canal 9 case (v. supraEngagements - Art. 6.1 CEDH : La Cour de cassation confirme que la procédure d’engagement ne relève pas de l’article 6 § 1 de la CEDH (Canal 9)), the Court of Cassation was still called upon to rule on the question of the extent of access to the file in the (...)

CA Paris, 1st ch. H., October 15, 2008, SCEA Vergers de la Mottev. Council, Dec. No. 07-D-18 of 16 May 2007, cider and cider apple sector CA Paris, 1st ch. H, November 5, 2008, Conseil départemental du Nord de l’ordre des médecinsv. Council, Dec. No. 07-D-41 of 28 November 2007, calls for (...)

Const. dec. no. 08-D-20 of October 1, 2008 relating to practices implemented by subsidiaries of Compagnie Financière et la Participation Roullier. Conc. conc. dec. no. 08-D-29 of 3 December 2008 relating to practices noted in the sector of public contracts for maintenance, joinery and (...)

Competition Law Compliance Study submitted to the Competition Council on September 15, 2008 Reflections on compliance programmes are becoming increasingly important at the national level. They were absent from the debate as recently as two years ago and have since given rise to several (...)

Trib. corr. Rouen, September 11, 2008, "travaux routiers en Seine-Maritime", published in the "Textes Officiels" section of the Moniteur n° 5474 of Oct. 24, 2008. Without going into the merits of this case - the examination of which is beyond the scope of this column - we will simply point (...)

CA Paris, 1st ch. H, 24 June 2008, France Travaux SA and others.v. Council, Dec. No. 06-D-07 bis of 21 March 2006, public works in the Ile-de-France region CA Paris, 1st ch. H, 3 July 2008, Eiffage Construction SAS and others.v. Council, Dec. No. 07-D-15 of 9 May 2007, public contracts (...)

CA Paris, 1st ch. H, 24 June 2008, France Travaux SA and others.v. Council, Dec. No. 06-D-07 bis of 21 March 2006, public works in the Ile-de-France region It will be remembered that in 2001 the NRE Act added a new paragraph to Article L 420-6 of the French Commercial Code which provides (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 08-D-12 of 21 May 2008 on practices in the plywood production sector Conc. conc. dec. no. 08-D-13 of June 11, 2008, relating to practices identified in the routine maintenance of premises Since 2007, there have been a number of developments in the procedure for the (...)

Cass. com, June 3, 2008, Sony France and Philips France, No. 07-17.147 and 07-17.196, Consumer Electronics Products affair. The Court of Cassation was called upon to rule, in a long-awaited decision, on the question of whether recordings of telephone conversations made without the knowledge (...)

At the beginning of 2007, the magazine Concurrences published the cross interviews of the two main candidates in the French presidential election. Ms. Ségolène Royal and Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy agreed to contribute to the debate by answering a series of questions on national and Community (...)

CA Paris, 4ème ch. B, April 18, 2008, PMC distribution c/ Pacific Création, RG 07/04360 This judgment will be posted on the European Commission’s website. While it is of particular interest for the issues related to selective distribution and Internet sales, it is also worth mentioning for (...)

Homicide, February 20, 2008, X... Michel and others, n° 02-82.676 and 07-82.110, "Lycées d’Ile de France". Criminal Case, 19 March 2008, SNF v. Cytec Industries BV, No. 07-80.473. Article L. 420-6 of the French Commercial Code is still a cause for concern (see M.-P. and Cl. Lucas de Leyssac, (...)

T. com. Paris, 15ème ch., 13 March 2008, SARL Turbo Europe c/ SA Automobiles Peugeot et SAS Renault, RG 2006/008432 Let us mention this judgment of the Paris Commercial Court of 13 March 2008, which is relevant to the proceedings in at least two respects. In the present case, the action (...)

Introduction 1. The question of coordination between law enforcement judges and competition authorities arises in different ways depending on the legal and institutional model adopted by States to combat anti-competitive practices. Thus, the problems are not the same in the United States, (...)

1. If there is one subject that was absent from the debates a year ago in France1 and which has been found in a few months at the heart of the competition authorities’ news, it is compliance programs, also known as compliance programmes in English terminology (hereinafter referred to as, for (...)

Since we have been talking about pedagogy several times since the beginning of the morning, this panel will give us the opportunity to put these recommendations into practice right away. Indeed, what we have been asked to do is to take a legal look at the impact of the new treaty on (...)

EC Comm, 30 January 2008, E.ON Energie AG, case COMP/39.326, relating to a fine pursuant to Article 23 paragraph 1 lit. e) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1/2003 for breach of a seal For the period under review, it should be noted that the decision by which the Commission imposed a penalty of (...)

Council Decision No 07-D-50 of 20 December 2007 concerning practices in the toy distribution sector Although, contrary to usual practice, the citations to the decision on practices in the toy distribution sector make no mention whatsoever of the decisions on business secrecy (known as "DSA") (...)

Council Decision No 07-D-50 of 20 December 2007 concerning practices in the toy distribution sector The recent Toys case offered the Competition Council the first opportunity to implement the provisions of Article L. 442-6 III of the French Commercial Code. It will be recalled that the NRE (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-D-48 of 18 December 2007 on practices implemented in the national and international removals industry On December 18, 2007, the Competition Council, for the second time since its introduction by the NRE Act of 2001, applied the leniency procedure provided for in (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-D-40 of 23 November 2007 relating to practices that have affected the award of public contracts for the collection of household waste in the Vosges department Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-D-48 of 18 December 2007 on practices implemented in the national and international (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-D-39 of 23 November 2007 relating to practices implemented in the passenger rail transport sector on the Paris-London route On 18 November 2004, Bristish Airways brought a case before the French Competition Council against practices implemented by France Rail (...)

Criminal Code, November 14, 2007, Canal Plus and Canal Plus Group, No. 05-85.739. This was a stop that had to be greeted with the greatest fervour by the DGCCRF at the end of 2007 . On November 14, 2007, the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation completely censured two orders issued by (...)

CA Paris, 1st ch. H, 6 November 2007, Canal 9/GIE Les Indépendantsv. Council, Dec. No. 06-D-29 of 6 October 2006 The first appeals against decisions involving the commitment procedure were awaited with interest (see ConcurrencesNo. 1-2007, C. Lemaire, pp. 148-149).). In a first judgment of (...)

Cass. com, 6 November 2007, Minister of the Economy / DBS, Sort et Chasle, Somoclest, n° 06-16.194 Cass. com, 6 November 2007, Minister of the Economy / Unidoc, n° 06-17.881 In two rulings handed down on 6 November 2007, the French Supreme Court clarified the rules governing interrupting (...)

The multiplication of "market authorities" - competition authorities and sectoral regulators - and the development of their means of action on the market raise the question of the coherence and the convergence of the institutional and procedural framework in which they operate. After a general (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-D-21 of 26 June 2007 on practices implemented in the linen rental and maintenance sector The articulation of ancillary and alternative procedures to sanctions has given rise to a number of questions and debates in recent years. The so-called "linen case" offers the (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-D-19 of 24 May 2007 on practices implemented in the air transport sector with regard to services to the West Indies In a previous issue of this column, we reported on the Competition Council’s use of the procedure for dismissal for lack of sufficient evidence (see (...)

ECN Working Group on Cooperation Issues, Results of the questionnaire on the reform of Member States (MS) national competition laws after EC Regulation No. 1/2003 (as of May 18, 2007) A document entitled "Results of the questionnaire on the reform of Member States national competition laws (...)

Cons. conc. dec. no. 07-D-15 of May 9, 2007 relating to practices implemented in public procurement contracts relating to high schools in the Île-de-France region The Île-de-France high school procurement case provided the Competition Council with an opportunity to review various aspects of (...)

Cons. conc. dec. no. 07-D-15 of May 9, 2007 relating to practices implemented in public procurement contracts relating to high schools in the Île-de-France region The years 2005 and 2006 had enabled the Competition Council to clarify the contours of the relations that criminal judges (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-01 of 25 April 2007 relating to a request for provisional measures by the company KalibraXE Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-03 of 7 June 2007 relating to a request for precautionary measures presented by Solutel Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-04 of 28 June 2007 relating to a (...)

TGI Béthune, ch. com, 4 April 2007, SA Quaron c/ SA Roquette Frères, unpublished In the present case, Quaron brought an action against Roquette Frères before the Commercial Chamber of the Béthune Regional Court of First Instance on the basis, firstly, of Articles 1134, 1147 and 1382 of the (...)

We should also mention the interesting initiative of the Competition Council which, at the end of September 2006, decided to set up four working groups bringing together members of the Council and lawyers (see V. de Senneville, Le Conseil de la concurrence veut mieux organiser ses procédures, (...)

Cons. conc., Dec. no. 06-D-05, 06-D-06, 06-D-11, 06-D-19, 06-D-21, 06-D-24, 06-D-31, 06-D-39 Unlike other competition authorities, the Competition Council does not have the opportunity to prosecute. Nor can it decide in advance what precisely its priorities for future action will be, firstly (...)

What place do you think competition policy should occupy if the French economy is to be fully competitive? What place do you consider competition policy should occupy in the implementation of the policies you propose to put in place if you are elected President of the Republic? The European (...)

Cass. com, December 12, 2006, Société Western Télécom / France Telecom, n° 05-19.610 The ruling handed down by the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation on 12 December 2006 certainly deserves attention for more than one reason. However, in the context of this column we will limit (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 06-MC-03 of 11 December 2006 on requests for provisional measures in the maritime transport sector between Corsica and the mainland Concordant Consensus, Dec. n° 06-D-36 of 6 December 2006 relating to the practices implemented by civil society in the field of Medical (...)

EC Commission, Notice on Immunity from fines and reduction of fines in cartel cases, OJ C. 298, 8 December 2006, p. 17. It will be recalled that, on 29 September 2006, the European Competition Network adopted and published a "Model Leniency Programme" on which the competition authorities (...)

Conc. conc. dec. 06-D-37 of 7 December 2006 on practices implemented in the sector of distribution of cycles and products for cyclists From a procedural point of view, Decision No 06-D-37 of 7 December 2006 on practices implemented in the cycle and cycle product distribution sector should be (...)

Concordant Consensus, Dec. n° 06-D-36 of 6 December 2006 relating to the practices implemented by civil society in the field of Medical Imaging of the Nivolet. Before reaching decision n° 06-D-36 of December 6, 2006, the referral to the SELARL Alpes Imageries Médicales concerning practices (...)

Conc. dec. 06-D-36 of 6 December 2006 on practices implemented by civil society in the field of Medical Imaging of the Nivolet. Decision n° 06-D-36 of 6 December 2006 relating to practices implemented by the civil society of Medical Imaging means of the Nivolet recalls the position adopted (...)

Min. Eco, Consumer Bill, No. 3430, tabled November 8, 2006 Without going back over the lively debates that followed the announcement in early 2005 by the President of the Republic of a reflection on the need to introduce a class action mechanism into French law, we would like to point out (...)

Conc. conc. dec. n° 06-D-33 of 8 November 2006 relating to practices implemented within the framework of public works contracts for buildings in the Auvergne region It will be recalled that, in a judgment of 23 May 2006, the Court of Appeal ruled that a summons by a rapporteur for a hearing (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 06-D-31 of 20 October 2006 relating to the request for protective measures submitted by Finegee against the Heineken France Boissons group While the debate on the relationship between the law on anti-competitive practices, and in particular cartels, and merger law has (...)

Const. dec. n° 06-D-25 of 28 July 2006 relating to practices identified during the restoration of the bell tower heritage of Rouen Cathedral. This is a relatively classic procurement cartel case. It is perhaps distinguished from other cases of this type by the fact that there is no (...)

Action against Conc. conc. dec. no. 06-D-24 of 24 July 2006, Festina; and against Cons. conc., Dec. no. 06-D-29 of 6 October 2006, GIE Les Indépendants The commitment procedure brings a lot of new features to each issue of the magazine. While in October 2006 the first case was made public in (...)

Min. justice, 22 May 2006, Circular on the modernisation of the rules implementing Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty and Articles L. 420-1 and L. 420-2 of the Commercial Code relating to anti-competitive practices, CIV 2006-09 D1, BO Min. Justice, No. 103 The Ministry of Justice has just (...)

Report of 12 October 2006 by Mr Hervé Novelli on behalf of the Committee on Finance, General Economy and the Plan on the draft budget law for 2007 In Annex No. 11 of this report, entitled "Economic development and regulation", Special Rapporteur Hervé Novelli devotes important developments (...)

Leniency programs are now a well established and efficient policies through Europe, both at the EU level and at the national levels. In this sery of 5 articles, EU and national policy officers, academics and practionners give various points of view on the use of lenieny programs in the EU (...)