Etienne Thomas

Financial markets remain under the close supervision of the Commission. During the period under review, two decisions were issued sanctioning, respectively, two cartels between investment banks in the highly sensitive European government bond market and in the market for bonds issued by (...)

Investing in a company is a high-risk financial activity. No one is unaware of this, and neither are the bankers at Goldman Sachs, who have a much better grasp of the workings of global finance than we do. Traditionally, the aim is to increase the economic profitability of the target company in (...)

Where do you place the cursor for the end of an infraction? This question is simple in its formulation, but not without complexity. Its answer is also not without legal consequences, in that the five-year limitation period for prosecution runs, in the case of a single and continuous (...)

It will be recalled that in the heat stabilisers case, in a judgment delivered in 2018, the Court of First Instance had annulled an amending decision of the Commission, by which the Commission had corrected an error, contained in a previous decision, relating to the determination of the (...)

Since the first major judgments, in the 1970s, the courts, now of the Union, have not ceased to outline, through a functional interpretation of the concept of undertaking, the contours of a system that is forever unprecedented in anti-competitive practice law of the liability of parent (...)

If the Competition Authority has certain concerns about compliance with the competition rules on the market, it may receive commitments from the companies concerned with a view to lifting them. The resulting commitment decisions are generally not immune to litigation initiated by third parties (...)

When setting the amount of a fine itself, can the Paris Court of Appeal be more severe than the Competition Authority? While French law, unlike EU law, provides for a genuine "recours en réformation"(see Article L. 464-8 C. com. ), this question is of interest, whether the fine is determined (...)

As in Europe, even cartel law progresses in times of crisis. The European Commission’s responses are usually the strongest. Mergers between competing companies cannot be tolerated, nor can any justification based on the economic difficulties of the sectors of activity concerned. There is no (...)

In the case of the power cable cartel, two judgements are eagerly awaited. One will soon be pronounced in an appeal by Goldman Sachs. Broadly speaking, the Court will be asked to rule on the extension of the presumption of control of a parent company in the event that it does not hold all or (...)

"In Belgium and the Netherlands, the temperature continues to fall. Warm air, however, continues to come from Germany, contributing to a general warming of the planet. Perhaps you could try to get some fresh air from your side to protect the environment as well" ( EUTrib., 7 Nov. 2019, Kempen, (...)

Now it’s the turn of the beans, peas and corn. The Commission will indeed have been led to sanction once again a cartel in the canned vegetable market, a most classic cartel, which at first glance does not surprise at its remarkable longevity (for a cartel in the canned mushroom market, see Eur. (...)

A sector in crisis is undoubtedly a fertile ground for bringing together competing companies. For some companies, freeing themselves from the constraints of the market sometimes stems from a survival instinct, hoping that the Commission will be relatively benevolent in the event of sanctions. (...)

In this back-to-school period, no one can escape the too many by-products (toys, figurines, backpacks, school bags, kits, etc.) bearing the effigy of children’s favourite characters. This important derivatives market is also subject to agreements between the licensee and its licensee, as (...)

It is easy to say that, in competition law, fortune does not smile on the bold. Traders may be bold, but in recent years the Commission has taken numerous decisions sanctioning cartels on the financial markets. This is illustrated, if need be, by those revealed in the sector of interest rate (...)

The motor vehicle sector certainly occupies a prominent place in the competition law landscape, as illustrated, where appropriate, by the texts adopted by the Commission to regulate vertical agreements in this area between manufacturers, distributors and/or repairers. Since 1985, various (...)

The principle of economic continuity, which has been the source of much litigation, makes it possible, in substance, to attribute an offence to a company that has not committed any material act but holds the assets related to the offence (see, for a summary of the case law on this point, Trib. (...)

While the principle of economic continuity enables the Commission to adapt its practice to corporate restructuring in a timely manner, it cannot, in principle, be criticised for failing to invoke that principle where the direct perpetrator of an infringement remains legally stable. That is the (...)

On 2 February 2017, the Commission launched a wide-ranging investigation into the e-commerce sector, in particular in view of the limited development of cross-border online sales in the EU (see European Commission press release of 2 February 2017, IP/207/01). As a result of this investigation, (...)

Fifteen actions brought against the Commission’s decision in the power cables case for as many rejections. The Court of First Instance will certainly not have been convinced by the arguments put forward before it by the many protagonists in this cartel, whose longevity - almost ten years - is (...)

Second stage of the action brought against the decision of the Competition Authority in the case of welded wire mesh on the island of Réunion, which concerned a number of cartel practices between players in the sector in connection with the major construction projects on the island of Réunion, in (...)

A few months after its judgment following the two questions referred by the Court of Cassation for a preliminary ruling in the "endives" case, the Grand Chamber of the Court met again to answer a series of questions from the Italian Council of State. Although the present case is certainly one (...)

The medical world remains the focus of this column, thanks to a decision by the Competition Authority, in which the latter, on the one hand, declares itself partly incompetent and, on the other hand, rejects the complaints on the basis of Article L. 462-8 C. com. Various companies providing (...)

Following on from the judgments in Arduino (Case C-35/99) and Cipolla (Case C-94/04 and Case C-202/04), the Court of Justice of the European Communities has decided to refer the matter to the Court of Justice of the European Communities.), the Court was questioned by the Sofia District Court in (...)

Litigation generated by hybrid transactions is recurrent during this period, since the judgment reported here, handed down by the Paris Court of Appeal on October 26, 2017, comes in addition to those handed down by the Court of Cassation in the Mobilitas case and by the Court of First Instance (...)

While the sanctioning of anti-competitive practices generally implies, at the administrative level, the imposition of a fine, which is a source of increasingly serious litigation, other consequences, at the civil level alone, should not be ignored. This is the case for the nullity of (...)

Following the Court’s judgment in the Laufen Austria case, the Court of First Instance, by its judgment on reference, reformed the fine imposed on Laufen Austria, for the period prior to its acquisition by the Roca group, by reducing its amount (§ 40). It should be recalled that the Court of (...)

By its judgment of 6 July 2017, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Toshiba against the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 19 January 2016 and, at the same time, puts an end to the Toshiba saga before the judges of the European Union (on the judgment of the Court of (...)

Following a first leniency application in 2011 by General Mills and its subsidiaries to bring possible anti-competitive practices in the dairy sector to the attention of the Competition Authority, the Authority had, on 11 March 2015, fined many players in the dairy sector a total of €192.7 (...)

Following the judgments delivered by the Court of First Instance in the context of the cartel in the bathroom fixtures sector, commented on in the same columns (see, in particular, N. Jalabert-Doury, The Court of First Instance of the EU reduces the fines of several undertakings in the bathroom (...)

"Hygiene and maintenance", act two. Pending a ruling by the Court of Cassation, to which an appeal has been lodged in the same case, it is appropriate to focus on the ruling handed down by Chamber 5-7 of the Paris Court of Appeal, following the appeal lodged against the decision of the (...)

Will the Tribunal, by delivering its Judgment in the Parker case on 14 July 2016, put an end to the judicial saga concerning the marine pipe cartel? This case will have been the occasion for the judges of Luxembourg (see Trib. UE, 17 May 2013, Parker ITR and Parker-Hannifin, c/ Commission, (...)

Since the entry into force of Act No. 2012-1270 of 20 November 2012 relating to overseas economic regulation, known as the "Lurel" Act, and pursuant to Article L. 420-2-1 of the French Commercial Code, companies operating on overseas markets must put an end to practices whose purpose or effect (...)

Even if it were at the heart of this case, the question of the imputability of the infringing conduct of a subsidiary to its parent company will not attract our attention in the present columns, since the solutions provided remain classic as regards the legal duality and activities of the (...)

On 13 January 2014, the Commission opened formal proceedings to examine certain provisions of the agreements between several US production studios and the main European pay-TV broadcasters. These agreements were specifically aimed at licensing the audiovisual content of the production studios (...)

Can a framework agreement concluded between workers’ and employers’ representatives constitute a concerted practice which may restrict competition? This is in substance one of the questions referred to the Court of Justice of the European Free Trade Association (hereinafter EFTA Court) by the (...)

"Nothing is permanent except change," Heraclitus said. We could easily say the same in competition law. As a result of restructuring, companies that have participated in an infringement rarely belong to the same group of companies because of divestments or transfers of activities that take (...)

Continuation and end of the very French saga of belonging to a group? After having complied on 28 May 2015 with the ruling handed down on 18 February 2015 by the Court of Cassation in the Historic Monuments case, the Paris Court of Appeal was once again called upon to rule on this thorny issue (...)

Has Jean de la Fontaine ever warned us, albeit in a completely different vein, that it is not without danger to want to look bigger than oneself? Would it be the same, under the Union’s competition rules, for a tenant wishing to exercise the prerogatives of a lessor? That is, in substance, the (...)

What better place than a movie theater to "get along"? This question can only be answered in the affirmative following the European Commission’s decision of 21 October 2015 sanctioning the behaviour of eight suppliers of optical disc players for exchanging information between June 2004 and (...)

Admittedly, as Advocate General Ghent put it, the limitation period ’reflects in law a banal truth, namely that time is right in everything, that after a period of time there always comes a time when, in social relations, what is past must no longer be called into question and that, even if that (...)

Some might have pointed out that, with regard to the reversal of the capitalist presumption, "it is when you reach the goal that you are most likely to miss it". In the present case, the applicants have never been so close to it ... Indeed, the main issue in this case is whether the capital (...)

Would trust preclude control? Following the judgment of the Court of First Instance of 15 July 2015 in Case T-418/10, it seems that, under EU competition law, such a question must be answered in the negative, at least as regards the relationship between a company and its commercial agent. In (...)

"Club Zurich", "Club Europe", "Club España", "Club Italia": the companies involved in the prestressing steel market had only the embarrassment of the choice of meetings to reach agreement. This is what they did from 1984 to 2002. Such an important cartel could not remain secret indefinitely, in (...)

It has to be said that, in competition law, whether it be abuse of a dominant position or cartels, bananas are always in the limelight, and always slippery, as is clear from the Court’s judgment in the Fresh del Monte cases reported here. In those cases, the Commission adopted a decision in (...)

The French saga of group membership is not over. After having been rejected by the Court of Cassation in its ruling of February 18, 2014, the Court of Appeal has now decided that the French saga of group membership is not over....does the Court of Appeal fall in line? The case that gave rise to (...)

Some say that the simple flapping of a butterfly’s wings could trigger a tornado halfway around the world. Would this analysis also apply to competition law? This question could arise following the Paris Court of Appeal ruling of 26 March 2015. In this case, the Court had to rule on the (...)

Trib. EU, Dec. 17, 2014, Pilkington Group, Case T-72/09 "The car Monsieur Fernand ! The car !" Audiard, in his Tontons flingueurs, had he anticipated, certainly in another context, the most cartelized consumer product? Let’s draw up an inventory, without the references that would confuse the (...)