Further to an ex-officio investigation in 2008 and a complaint filed by Euro Cargo Rail in 2009, the French Competition Authority has found the SNCF guilty of several instances of abuse of dominant position in the context of the opening up to competition of the rail transport sector. After (...)

Referred to by the publisher of a new daily sports newspaper of practices that a competing press group implemented for driving it from the market, the Competition Authority (AdlC) conducted an investigation. At the request of its general case-handler (rapporteure générale), the Juge des libertés (...)

The new Motor Vehicle Regulation and its Guidelines have raised many questions from players in the aftermarket sector. The Commission has therefore decided to publish its answers to the most frequently asked questions in a document which, as it has emphasized from the outset, is neither (...)

Four perfume brands have filed a legal action against the world’s number-one online auction site, eBay: they accuse eBay of allowing on its sites the sale by non-authorized third parties of products covered by a selective distribution channel. The judge found that eBay, a site bringing together (...)

In May 2010, an operator terminated without notice a partnership agreement with another party. The latter filed a claim for damages on the basis of Articles 1134 and 1147 of the Civil Code. Applying the jurisdiction clause contained in the contract, the Commercial Court in Arras declined (...)

In 2004, Orange Caraïbe was subject to protective measures in order to put an end to anticompetitive practices on the mobile phone market in the French Caribbean. Five years later, the Competition Authority (AdlC) handed down a 63 million euro fine to Groupe France Telecom. On 23 September 2010, (...)

On 21 October 1998, the French Competition Council had initiated ex officio an investigation into the luxury perfumes sector. By the end of the investigation, the Council estimated that, between 1997 and 2000, a general and continuous vertical agreement between several well-known brands and (...)

In 2006, the French Competition Council (Conseil de la concurrence) initiated proceedings regarding practices in the cosmetics and personal care products distribution sector after finding that the majority of manufacturers required that sales be carried out only in a physical space and always (...)

The Football Association Premier League (FAPL), holder of the television broadcasting rights for the Premier League, the leading professional football league competition for football clubs in England, grants exclusive licences in respect of those broadcasting rights to one TV channel per (...)

UFC Que Choisir had complained of practices between three telephone operators that, in its view, were anticompetitive. Before the ruling against the operators, UFC Que Choisir had set up on its website a mechanism by which those with a grievance could develop their case in an online file. The (...)

The number-one Polish telecom operator – former State owned monopoly - was suspected of a violation of Article 8 of the Polish law on competition and consumer protection and of Article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). At the end of the procedure the Polish (...)

The Paris Court of Appeal had ruled against the world’s leading temporary employment agencies for a price cartel concerning their major clients. The Court of Cassation has delivered a most informative decision of rejection in respect of all the appeals – essentially procedural - against the (...)

The question of the criteria required for quantitative selective distribution continues to create intense debate in the case law in France. There are two opposing schools of opinion on the question both from legal commentators and in the case law: The first school argues that the European (...)

In two important judgments, the European Court of Human Rights has partially invalidated the search and seizures procedure implemented under Article L. 450-4 of the French Commercial Code. In both cases the companies Canal Plus (Groupe Canal Plus and Sport Plus) and Primagaz challenged the (...)

On 15 December 2010, the General Court of the European Union (EGC) handed down a tough but very thoroughly argued decision on the infringement of breaking of an official seal. The European Commission had ordered an inspection of the premises of the company E.ON Energie AG in the context of an (...)

A new development has arisen in the luxury perfumes case. The Paris Court of Appeal, ruling on a referral back to it from the Court of Cassation, had exceptionally annulled a Competition Council (now Competition Authority) decision for excessive duration of the investigation procedure . This (...)

Since 1998, the Sanofi-Aventis France laboratory has been marketing an antiplatelet medication, Plavix(r), whose intellectual property protection expired on 15 July 2008 in Europe, with the exception of the rights protecting clopidogrel salt used in Plavix(r) and the clopidogrel-aspirin (...)

On 7 April 2010, the Supreme Court quashed the judgment of the Paris Court of Appeal which had been unusually severe in finding a restrictive agreement from information exchanges between Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom distorting the conditions for unlawfulness set out in the famous John Deere (...)

The maritime servicing of Corsica case provided the Paris Court of Appeal with an opportunity to rule on jurisdiction between the Competition Authority and the administrative courts and on the definition of a dominant position and the necessity of an effect on the market to characterise an (...)

The company Titres Cadeaux complained that the company Kadéos was foreclosing the markets for the distribution and redeeming of multi-store gift cards by systematically including exclusivity clauses in its contracts with traders. It therefore filed a complaint with the Competition Authority for (...)

The Court of Cassation has quashed and annulled the decision by which the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the order for interim measures - which are very unusual - leading to the suspension of Orange’s exclusive deal to market the iPhone . According to the Court of Appeal, exclusive agreements (...)

Many suppliers organise their networks using qualitative and quantitative selective distribution systems and particularly in the case of motor vehicle distribution. More generally, all sectors in which it may be practical to have recourse to a limited number of distributors meeting the required (...)

The interim order handed down by the President of the Albi Commercial Court on 28 October 2009 is of interest insofar as it has, for the first time in France, ruled on the issue of the competence of the local court hearing applications for interim relief to rule on matters involving competition (...)

The companies Outremer and Moebius had accused France Télécom of having abusively exploited its dominant position resulting from its former legal monopoly in order to slow down the development of alternative operators on the landline and Internet access markets in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana (...)

Legal disputes often arise relative to the selection of distributors of new vehicles in distribution systems that are both qualitative and quantitative in the various Member States of the EU. An analysis of the decisions rendered reflects the significant difficulties, after entry into force of (...)

On 27 May 2009, the Paris Court of Appeal rendered a judgment that is of great interest with regard to two competition law issues. In respect of sales outside the network by distributors :- under Block Exemption Regulation n° 1400/2002 on the application of Article 81(3) of the Treaty to (...)

The decision rendered on 8 April 2009 by the Competition Authority concerning the takeover of the company Pellier Metz SAS by the group Bailly SAS constitutes the first application of the new merger control provisions applicable to the distribution sector under the LME law of 4 August 2008 and (...)

Up until 2003 a car manufacturer had distributed its vehicles via networks specific to each brand by guaranteeing territorial exclusivity to all of its dealers. With the entry into force of Regulation n° 1400/2002 , the company opted for a qualitative and quantitative selective distribution (...)

The highest commercial court in France has for the first time addressed the question of procedural safeguards for undertakings concerned during the commitments procedure laid down in article L. 464-2, I of the Commercial Code. The aim of the procedure is “to ensure that the undertaking ceases or (...)

Assessment of the consequences on jurisdiction of the unchallenged public policy qualification for provisions relating to restrictive practices can be derived from two decisions, rendered by different chambers of the Cour de cassation. In the first case, a French distributor brought an action (...)

Terminations on the basis of network reorganizations taking place at the time of entry into force of motor vehicle Block Exemption Regulation n° 1400/2002 have given rise to a number of decisions by the ECJ and in the courts of various Member States, and particularly in France. The latest (...)

Before the NRE Law (Nouvelles régulations économiques) the courts were divided over the question of whether the Minister for the Economy had jurisdiction to ask courts to order the annulment of contracts containing provisions to implement restrictive practices or to award damages to victims of (...)

Four perfumers sue eBay, the world’s foremost brokerage platform for remote electronic bidding, for having permitted, in violation of their rights, the sale of products marketed through unauthorized channels and counterfeit sales on its sites. eBay disputed the competence of the French courts (...)

A small consumer electronics discount retailer brought an action before the Competition Council against some of its suppliers for vertical agreements made with their respective distributors. In support of the action, the retailer produced tapes containing the recordings of phone conversations (...)

The company Turbo Europe, better known under the name Automobil- Eclerc, has been in dispute with the French automobile manufacturers for a number of years. After attempting to place orders for new vehicles from Peugeot, Citroën and Renault and being turned down on the grounds of not belonging (...)