Michaël is a partner in the EU/Competition law department of Addleshaw Goddard in Paris. He represents clients in antitrust litigations, merger control, State Aid, counselling, and establishing effective antitrust compliance programs. He is also specialised in distribution law and restrictive trade practices. He graduated from the universities of Warwick (UK) and Sarrebruecken (Ger.) and obtained a postgratuate degree in EC law from Paris II - Panthéon Assas where he now gives lectures. Michaël Cousin is a member of the French Competition Law Society (Association française d’Etude de la Concurrence).
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Responding to an appeal against the French Competition Authority’s ("FCA") first referral of a concentration below national merger control thresholds to the European Commission, the Conseil d’Etat declared it does not have jurisdiction to rule in these cases. Key takeaways The French Supreme (...)
397
On 26 March 2021, the French Constitutional Council ruled that, insofar as a criminal provision sanctions the same conduct, the provision of the Commercial Code imposing a fine (being up to 1% of the undertaking’s annual turnover) for obstructive practices to an investigation is (...)
424
On 9 March 2021, the French Administrative Supreme Court (Conseil d’Etat) rejected an appeal by Mondadori’s social and economic committee ("SEC") in relation to the French Competition Authority’s ("FCA") decision to approve Reworld Media’s takeover of Mondadori France. The French (...)
392
On 17 February 2021, the French Supreme Court confirmed an order authorising the French Competition Authority ("FCA") to carry out dawn raids at Caudalie’s premises on its own account following a request for assistance received from its Belgian counterpart. What you need to know – key (...)
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In the context of a stand-alone action – which falls under the new provisions resulting from the transposition of the Damages Directive – the Paris Commercial Court ruling at first instance orders Google to pay EUR 1,2 million in damages to Oxone, a telephone directory services company. Oxone (...)
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On 3 December 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal ("Court") confirmed the fines imposed by the French Competition Authority ("FCA") in 2013 on the German chemical distributor Brenntag, and its former parent company Deutsche Bahn, of EUR 47 million and EUR 5.2 million respectively for participating (...)
107
On 12 November 2020, the French competition authority (the "FCA") fined the National Council of the College of Dental Surgeons (the "National Council"), five departmental councils of the College and two trade unions for collectively boycotting dental care networks. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - (...)
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On 8 October 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected Google’s challenge to the French Competition Authority’s ("FCA") decision compelling Google to negotiate "neighbouring rights" with news agencies and press publishers. "Neighbouring rights" include the right to receive payment when a (...)
173
On 5 October 2020, the EU General Court ("GC") partially annulled European Commission ("Commission") decisions ordering inspections at ITM and Casino’s premises in 2017 following suspicions of illegal anticompetitive exchanges of competitively sensitive information. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - (...)
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The French Competition Authority ("FCA") has issued a rare decision sanctioning three laboratories active in treatment of age-related macular degeneration on the basis of collective abuse of dominance practices designed to sustain the sale of an expensive drug, Lucentis, to the detriment of a (...)
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On 8 September 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") published a working document (the "Evaluation Report") summarising the findings of the evaluation phase of the review of the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation ("VBER") and the Guidelines on Vertical Restraints ("Vertical (...)
206
The French Competition Authority ("FCA") has concluded that the acquisition of the hypermarket Géant Casino, by two entities operating (directly or indirectly) under the competing retailer E. Leclerc, raised competition concerns at the local level, which could not be addressed through (...)
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The French Competition Authority ("FCA") has fined twelve undertakings involved in a cartel at multiple levels of the ham and cold meats sector. On 16 July 2020, the FCA issued a decision (n°20-D-09) imposing fines to 12 undertakings which were party to a cartel in the ham and cold meats (...)
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On 8 July 2020, the Paris Court of appeal ("the Court") annulled dawn raids conducted by the French Competition Authority ("the FCA") at Whirlpool’s premises in 2014. On 27 and 28 May 2014, the FCA raided Whirlpool’s premises to find evidence of an alleged price-fixing cartel in the domestic (...)
273
On 8 April 2020, the European Commission ("Commission") published a Temporary Framework Communication ("Communication") to provide antitrust guidance to companies cooperating in response to urgent situations related to the Covid-19 outbreak. The Commission also announced that it issued a (...)
291
On 16 March 2020, the French Competition Authority ("FCA") announced that it had fined Apple EUR1.1 billion, the highest fine ever imposed to an undertaking, for having implemented vertical agreements with certain of its distributors and an abuse of economic dependency against its independent (...)
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On 16 January 2020, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed the 2018 decision of the French Competition Authority ("FCA") to fine several producers and wholesalers active in the sale of liquid fertilizers for domestic cultivation for having imposed vertical restraints. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - (...)
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In a decision of 7 November 2019, the French State Council ("Conseil d’Etat") dismissed the appeal brought by Fnac Darty, a retailer specialising in cultural and electronic products, against a fine imposed by the French Competition Authority (the "FCA") for failure to comply with its (...)
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On 28 October 2019, the French Competition Authority ("FCA") fined a group of road transport companies for having organised customer allocation practices among its members. Astre did not challenge the FCA’s objections and applied for settlement. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY TAKEAWAYS On 27 (...)
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The Court of appeal of Paris has confirmed the decision of the French Competition Authority ("FCA") sanctioning Stihl, a manufacturer of mechanical garden equipment, for prohibiting, between 2006 and 2017, the sale of certain dangerous products on its distributors’ websites. The Court of (...)
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On 8 October 2019, the French Competition Authority ("FCA") sanctioned Procter & Gamble ("P&G"), Coty and Chanel, as well as their wholesalers, €176,000 for having implemented exclusive import agreements in overseas territories. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY TAKEAWAYS Since March 2013, (...)
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On 27 September 2019, the European Commission ("Commission") fined Coroos and Groupe CECAB €31.65 million for participating in a canned vegetables cartel for over 13 years, with a third participant, Bonduelle, receiving full immunity for blowing the whistle. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW - KEY (...)
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Whilst competition authorities are reflecting on ways to control "killer acquisitions", the French Competition Authority ("FCA") has declined to rely on historic case precedent to control a non-notifiable acquisition completed by a dominant company. On 13 October 2016, TDF, the French (...)
418
The French Consumer Act of 17 March 2014 - the Hamon Law - introduced a class action system into French Law under articles L. 423-1 to L. 423-26 of the Consumer code. Based on an "opt- in" format, consumer associations play a major part in this process. Following the adoption of the (...)
2009
This On-Topic discusses the development of algorithmic pricing and the issues it raises for competition law enforcers. Algorithmic pricing may facilitate tacit or express collusion and even generate new forms of collusion against which traditional tools of competition law enforcement must be (...)
955
The conference that took place in Paris on 26th of June, 2015 provided the opportunity to return to the actuality of intellectual property law and competition law. Simon Corbineau-Picci and Pauline Debré open the debates about the rights and duties of the holder of an essential patent to the (...)
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The file assesses the impact of the Macron law on competition law related issues. More particularly, five articles examine the legislator’s will to introduce changes with respect to the role of the Competition Authority. Two articles analyze the changes brought by the Law to competition (...)
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On 9 July 2014, the European Commission published its White Paper - Towards More Effective EU Merger control and invited third parties to submit comments. This White Paper mainly focuses on the control of non-controling minority shareholdgins which the Commission intends to control through a (...)
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This article brings together contributions from the second panel of the AFEC’s General Assembly of 20 June 2013 in Paris dedicated to the regulation of commercial practices INTRODUCTION Jean-Patrice DE LAURENCIE Lawyer at the Paris Bar 1. It is an honour for which I thank the (...)
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Both aspects of the grocery retail sector regulation, i.e. the rules on unfair behaviours and those governing the market structures have evolved in different ways since 2005. Further to the Competition Authority’s opinion of 17 December 2010 discussions moved toward the relevance of more (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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 (...)
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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. (...)
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The present study comments on the Ordinance of 13 November 2008 on the Modernisation of the Regulation of Competition. This legal instrument changes in several respects the legal framework applying to anti-competitive practices. It extends the competences of the new Autorité de la Concurrence (...)
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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 (...)
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1. As the current reflections on a more economic approach to Article 82 EC or Stateaid control show, competition authorities are confronted with the constant need to bring the rule of law into line with the rule of economicreasoning. The legal treatment of potential competition, as reflected (...)
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Grands arrêts du droit de la concurrence - Pratiques anticoncurrentielles - Volume II : Mise en oeuvre
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Laurence Idot Liber Amicorum - Concurrence & Europe - Vol I
