Laurent Flochel

This article presents the new unilateral effects tests in horizontal mergers which are intended to act as an initial filter to identify concentrations requiring closer scrutiny by the competition authorities. I. Introduction 1. The revision of the US Horizontal Merger Guidelines has given (...)

This first roundtable of the conference “Reform of vertical distribution”, Paris, 27 may 2010, is dedicated to the role of economic analysis. The economists insist that the reform is a mere update of the vertical guidelines rather than a massive change with regard to economic analysis. It is (...)

This three short papers summarize the main points of the training course Law & Economics held on March18th 2010 on “Efficiency gains and horizontal merger control” by Concurrences. The importance of considering efficiencies cannot be underestimated, as shown in the Guidance on the (...)

This short article summarizes the main points of the training course Law & Economics on November 25th 2009 on “short term costs - Application to predatory prices”. I. Introduction 1. Predatory pricing tests are numerous and each adapted to a specific context and practice: predatory pricing, (...)

This article presents in a unified conceptual framework the anticompetitive foreclosure tests. Such practices include predatory prices, margin squeezes, loyalty rebates or bundling and tying rebates. I. Introduction 1. Prediction testing is the subject of much academic and practical debate (...)

This article examines competition between two firms offering all or part of a “system good” consisting of a combination of several complementary components. Such systems can be open, in the sense that they allow all components to be com-bined together, or instead closed. In the latter case, only (...)

Within the framework of merger control, companies are often brought to propose or negotiate structural remedies to limit the potential anti-competitive effects of the operation. This article shows that economic theory analyzes the effects of such structural remedies in an opposite way according (...)

CFI, 12 September 2007, UFEX, DHL Express SAS, CRIE SA v. Commission, case T-60/05 The CFI dismissed the action brought by UFEX, DHL express and CRIE SA against a Commission decision not to pursue the examination of the complaint against La Poste and the French Government (SG-Greffe (2004) (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-04 of 28 June 2007 relating to a request for precautionary measures from the company Direct Energie Rarely has the move to open up to competition gone so unnoticed, and it took the media intervention of the Competition Council to publicize the process. Since 1 July (...)

EC Commission, 4 July 2007, Telefonica S.A., Case COMP/38.784 The incumbent telecoms operator Telefonica has been fined by the Commission over €151 million for excluding its competitors from the market for high-speed internet access. Ironically, the complainant in the case is the Spanish (...)

The company Solutel is involved in carrying out work on the private domain to connect users to the France Telecom network. Until now, France Telecom was the only company to offer this service. The customers are property developers and developers. The connection is made at a point on the (...)

Conc. conc. dec. no. 07-MC-02 of May 2, 2007 relating to a request for precautionary measures presented by Emettel A few months before the opening of its market to competition, TDF had signed exclusive or quasi-exclusive contracts with its customers, the television channels, for a period of (...)

Cons. conc. dec. no. 07-D-09 of 14 March 2007 relating to practices implemented by the GlaxoSmithKline France laboratory Two decisions, one French, the other Community, relating to predatory pricing, differ significantly on the criteria applied to classify predation practices (see (...)

CFI, 30 January 2007, France Télécom SA (Formerly Wanadoo Interactive SA) v Commission, Case T-340/03 The CFI confirmed in all respects the Commission’s decision of July 2003 fining Wanadoo Interactive (Wanadoo) EUR 10.35 million for having charged prices below its average costs for marketing its (...)

Concordant Consent, Dec. 06-D-27 of 20 September 2006 relating to a request for precautionary measures presented by Autodistribution and AD Net against practices implemented by Automobiles Citroën. The Competition Council has rejected the request for protective measures made by Autodistribution (...)