Ludovic Bernardeau

In the decision reported here, which was only slightly (?) expected, the Authority dismissed and dismissed practices in the distribution of brown goods, and more specifically Samsung branded TVs. Let’s put it plainly: TV. As a reminder, following a referral from the company Concurrence - (...)

Even, and above all, according to Adam Smith, prices are formed in different ways: the Spanish Abengoa and its subsidiary Abengoa Bionenergía have been fined 20 million euros for theirs, while acknowledging their participation and still settling with the Commission. The company Abengoa, (...)

The European Commission has just closed a new foreign exchange investigation (the sixth since 2013). This time, a cartel on the spot foreign exchange market, known as "Forex", by imposing fines on five banks: a total of 261 million euros to four banks that "traded"(UBS, Barclays, RBS and HSBC) (...)

In September 2019, the Commission had adopted a "settlement" decision against Bonduelle, Coroos and Groupe CECAB for their participation in a cartel in the largely understood pea market, dividing up markets and fixing prices for certain canned vegetables across Europe. Conserve Italia had (...)

In parallel with the consultation on the plans to reform the block exemption regulation and the guidelines applicable to vertical agreements, the Commission is launching an equivalent consultation, until 5 October 2021, with a view to reforming the block exemption regulations and the (...)

The reform of Regulation 330/2010 and the amendment of the associated guidelines is ongoing. On 9 July 2021, the Commission invited interested parties to submit their comments on the proposed drafts. The work undertaken by the Commission is proving to be very beneficial and is usefully (...)

In the judgment reported here, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal against a judgment of the Court of First Instance dismissing the case concerning the recycling of car batteries, in which an undertaking consisting of three companies, Recylex, challenged the 30% reduction in the fine (...)

In the judgment reported here, the Court of Justice dismisses the appeal against a judgment of the Court of First Instance dismissing the case of food packaging for retail sale, in which an undertaking, the Linpac group, had been granted immunity from fines for reporting the infringing (...)

This is not a textbook assumption. A company can participate passively in collusive meetings. To avoid liability, it must immediately distance itself publicly. However, the company must demonstrate that it informed its competitors that it was participating in these meetings from a different (...)

The European Commission is pursuing its reflection on the revision of the Block Exemption Regulation applicable to vertical agreements by publishing a working paper on the activity of distributors acting also as agents for the sale of other products of the same supplier (see, on the (...)

On 26 November 2020 and following other similar cases (the cardiovascular drug perindopril, the antidepressant citalopram and the pain reliever fentanyl), the Commission, in the context of a national (United Kingdom) patent dispute, decided to refer the case to the European Court of Justice, (...)

After the Côtes du Rhône (V. Aut. conc., 23 May 2018, Marketing of Côtes du Rhône AOC bulk wines, 18-D-06), the Alsace! In this period, everyone knows that, unlike books and museums, but just like tobacco products, wines are essential products. In this case, it was as a result of documents (...)

Following an investigation launched in 2016, the Commission adopts a decision to imposeleniencyfines totalling €260 million on three companies in a relatively unusual market and cartel context. Ethylene buyers typically purchase ethylene through supply agreements and, as the purchase price (...)

TheInternational Competition Network ( ICN, which has more than 140 members) has decided, through itsCartel Working Group, to study in more detail the implications of mega-data and algorithms in the fight against cartels. The scoping paper examines the subject from two different angles: as a (...)

In a press release issued in connection with the current health crisis, the Authority stated that it had been approached by a professional association representing opticians (in this case the Rassemblement des Opticiens de France), which wanted to support its members - opticians who had ceased (...)

Movers are known to be the most "accommodating" movers, as soon as the market is the most "arranged" for them. In the past, even members of the Commission have suffered from this (see European Commission, Decision of 11 March 2008 relating to a proceeding under Article 81 [EC] and Article 53 (...)

We know that most taxis dare to do anything and that is what they are known for. Even in the courtroom. The latest proof of this is the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal of 20 February 2020 in the very local case, but so much elsewhere verifiable, of the GIE de radio-taxi in (...)

One of the interests of competition law remains unparalleled the discovery, for the most part, of markets that were unknown until then: the distribution of liquid fertilisers for above-ground production dedicated to domestic cultivation illustrates this as far as is necessary. As the Paris (...)

The practice of the legal profession is renewed at will. Thus, AGN Avocats, which is registered with the Paris Bar, has adopted a development model based on franchising and its network comprises eighteen "agencies", located at the foot of the building in premises open to the outside world (...)

The Act of 20 November 2012 on overseas economic regulation, known as the "Lurel" Act, was designed to address the specific problems of the overseas territories (insularity, remoteness, small markets, existence of barriers to entry, etc.) by prohibiting, as of 22 March 2013, exclusive import (...)

We knew France was the land of good bread. But we still have to separate the wheat from the chaff; this is what the Authority seems to have wanted to focus on in its decision of 8 July 2019, in which, after the French and German millers, it sanctioned, to the tune of 1.7 million euros, a (...)

With this ruling of 4 July 2019, the length of which - nearly 120 pages with references to the contested decision - could make the Union Court jealous, the Paris Court of Appeal is giving birth to a new episode in the judicial saga of the Franco-German milling industry. A saga that is not yet (...)

The case originated in a complaint by the Canal Plus Group alleging a blocking of access to original French-language (EOF) catalogue films, i.e. films after an initial cycle of exploitation on pay and free television, approximately four years after their theatrical release. There was (...)

Damages actions for losses suffered as a result of a company’s participation in an offence are increasing at national level and with them the number of questions for preliminary rulings. Although the case reported here will have enabled the Court to provide useful clarifications on the (...)

It is now - more or less - well known that the law of 20 November 2012, relating to overseas economic regulation, known as the "Lurel" law, prohibited, as of 22 March 2013, exclusive imports that are not justified in the overseas collectivities (V. C. com. art. L. 420-2-1). Such agreements are (...)

In the card chip cartel case, the Commission considered that the cartel was based on a series of bilateral contacts, with the participants in the infringement coordinating their pricing policy for card chips through price-fixing contacts, including specific prices offered to major customers, (...)

In the North Sea shrimp cartel case, the Commission found that several companies had infringed Article 101 TFEU on the Belgian, German, French and Dutch markets for northern shrimps through practices of price-fixing and exchange of sensitive commercial information in a single and continuous (...)

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 that case, a cooperative and a producers’ association had lodged a complaint with the Authority against the criteria and procedure for membership of the Association martiniquaise interprofessionnelle de la viande, du bétail et du lait (AMIV), requesting interim measures. In the case in (...)

In September 2010, the French Competition Authority had heavily sanctioned the Banque de France, BPCE, Banque Postale, BNP-Paribas, Confédération Nationale du Crédit Mutuel and Crédit Agricole for a total of nearly €385 million, Crédit du Nord, Crédit Industriel et Commercial (CIC), LCL, HSBC (...)

In the exercise of its advisory competence, the Competition Authority decided, on the basis of Article L. 462-4 C. com., to launch a broad sector inquiry into competition in the pharmaceutical and medical biology sector. The Authority has announced that it will focus in particular on the (...)

Some will think that a fly has stung the Second Chamber (Extended Composition) of the Court of First Instance and others that it is perhaps rather a detailed irritation to be criticised too often by the Court of Justice for not sufficiently assessing the facts which has led the Court of First (...)

It will be recalled that, in a decision in the military removals sector in Martinique, the Competition Authority found that various companies, including AGS Martinique, had participated in an infringement, and imposed a fine of EUR 142 600 on AGS Martinique and a fine of EUR 158 450 on its (...)

Following on from its judgment in InnoLux, the Court validates the inclusion of intra-group sales for the purposes of determining the value of sales, not only in the case of a vertically integrated subsidiary and its parent company, but also in the case of two parent companies and a joint (...)

From automotive glass in 2008, electrical wire harnesses in 2013, car bearings and seats in 2014, alternators and starter motors in 2016, to battery recycling in 2017, the automotive sector is the subject of endless agreements of all kinds. In this pre-summer period, the focus is now on (...)

First decision of the year 2017 for the Competition Authority, by which the latter sanctions, in the tableware sector, a supplier for agreeing with some of its distributors to fix the resale prices of articles marketed under its brand "Atelier du vin". More precisely, the Sanbri company had (...)

The restaurant voucher sector soon to be starred, excuse me, pinned by the Competition Authority? The question is clearly raised following the decision of 16 October 2016 in this sector denounced, in hollow, more than thirty years ago now by Claude Zidi and his inextricable dilemma. Another (...)

No smoke without fire. So no fire without smoke? This could be a provocative summary of the Authority’s decision in the fire extinguisher case and the bitterness of the plaintiff in the same case. In short, in January 2015, the Authority had received a complaint from the Association des (...)

Does an originator pharmaceutical company (for non-specialists, non-generic medicines), which is very largely patented, infringe competition law by concluding an agreement with generic drug companies, which are poorly paid as such, in order to delay the marketing of their generics? That is, in (...)

Following the sanctioning by the European Commission in 1989 of a cartel in the welded wire mesh sector on the French, German and Benelux markets, involving companies well known to all competition law practitioners, it is now the turn of the Competition Authority to take an interest in this (...)

By Decision C (2012) 1959 final of 28 March 2012 relating to a proceeding under Article 101 TFEU (Case COMP/39462 - Transit) (’the contested decision’), the European Commission found that companies active in the international air transit services sector, including the applicants, UTi (...)

It was after Deutsche Bahn and its subsidiaries were denounced (for the purpose of "leniency") in 2008 in the traditional mail sector and in 2010 in the express mail sector, and after "non-contestation of objections" procedures with seven other "undertakings" that the Competition Authority (...)

In the agreements on courier services, it should be pointed out that not only companies active on these markets were sanctioned, but also a professional union, namely the Fédération des Entreprises de Transport et Logistique de France (TLF), as a "facilitator", is not a first under French and (...)

"This dark light that falls from the stars at last with the flow makes us see thirty sails". In EU competition law, would mother-subsidiary relations be like those vessels of Don Rodrigue? Admittedly, it is now settled case-law that a parent company may be held jointly and severally liable (...)

By the third judgment reported in those columns and relating to the European prestressing steel cartel, the Court of First Instance partially annulled the Commission’s decision of 2010 imposing fines on a subsidiary, SLM, the direct perpetrator of the infringement in question, and its parent (...)

Even if it bears its name badly, since it proceeds more, if not exclusively, from the non-contestation of grievances, the so-called "settlement" procedure is nonetheless a certain success, if not a sure success. As a reminder, this procedure was introduced by the Commission in 2008 (see (...)

"The rules applicable to undertakings under Articles 101 TFEU and 102 TFEU are designed to prohibit restrictions on free competition. The identification of a restriction of competition presupposes that it is established, at the end of the economic analysis, that the undertaking concerned has, (...)

AG N. Wahl, 26 March 2015, Total v. Commission, Case C-597/13 P. In his Opinion in an umpteenth Total case, Advocate General N. Wahl calls on the Court to define the effects of a judgment concerning a subsidiary on the legal position of the parent company, where the parent company’s (...)

Eur. Comm. 4 Feb. 2015, Case COMP/39861, ICAP; Press Release IP/15/4104 Can a company not operating on a cartelised market - of products or services - constitute, in relation to that cartel, an ’undertaking’ within the meaning of Article 101 TFEU? And, therefore, under Regulation 1/2003, not (...)