Anne-Sophie Choné-Grimaldi

Here are some facts of the case that remind one of an exam subject that one would gladly give to students of competition law. The franchisor, at the head of the ESPACE FOOT network (sale of sporting goods), had inserted a clause in its franchisee contracts which reads as follows: "[d]n the (...)

The conviction of eyewear suppliers on 22 July 2021 for practices involving resale price maintenance and a ban on resale on the Internet shows that the most basic rules of distribution law are not always respected. There are still pathological situations that the Authority must correct. In this (...)

Continuation and end: here is the last judgment - in principle - in the famous endive case! The decision of the Court of Appeal was expected: it will hardly surprise the faithful reader of this column. Indeed, we remember the condemnation for cartels pronounced by the Competition Authority (...)

Decision 21-D-14 is of particular interest with regard to the standard of proof required for a finding of resale price maintenance. After the DGGCRF had provided it with certain information, the Authority referred the matter to itself concerning practices implemented by the manufacturer Kärcher. (...)

The European Commission has published the preliminary results of its sector inquiry on the Internet of Things for consumers. More than 200 companies responded to the questionnaires sent out and almost 1000 contracts were communicated to the Commission. The results of the survey are now open for (...)

Regulations 1217/2010 and 1218/2010 of 14 December 2020 on research and development agreements and specialisation agreements will expire on 31 December 2022. Their evaluation has been completed. On 6 May 2021, the Commission published the results of the evaluation: overall, it revealed that (...)

It should be recalled that Commission Regulation (EU) No 461/2010 of 27 May 2010 on the application of Article 101(3) TFEU to categories of vertical agreements and concerted practices in the motor vehicle sector distinguishes between, on the one hand, vertical agreements for the distribution of (...)

The leniency procedure uncovered a cartel in the rail freight block train sector between the German, Austrian and Belgian rail operators. Prior to bidding for tenders, these companies consulted on the content of the bids they were about to submit, with the aim of sharing markets and customers (...)

Antitrust law is an ex post law. For the enforcement authorities, this means that their intervention takes place after the implementation of illegal practices. For companies, this means that before implementing a particular practice, it is up to them to assess it themselves in the light of the (...)

The facts that led to this decision, which enabled the Authority to impose a fine of a cumulative amount of approximately EUR 25 million, are unfortunately quite classic. They came to its attention through the leniency procedure. Between September 2010 and September 2016, the private label (...)

An aid scheme was introduced in 2006 to enable tobacco shop operators to make their businesses more secure by installing devices such as an alarm or a video surveillance system. The aid has been gradually increased to a maximum of EUR 15 000 every three years. Two companies, active in the (...)

The case began before the DGCCRF, which activated the mechanism provided for in Article L. 464-9 of the French Commercial Code, which allows for the sanctioning of "anti-competitive micro-practices". As a result, two companies were sanctioned for facts constituting a cartel. The third company (...)

Following the decision of 22 October 2020 (discussed in the previous column), the French Competition Authority has issued a second decision on the basis of the Egalim law: it concerns the cooperation agreement between Carrefour and Tesco regarding the manufacture of their private label (...)

In a decision handed down on December 3, 2020, the French Competition Authority sanctioned Damman Frères for imposing resale prices on its distributors (independent distributors, holders of a simple brand license) who resell their products on the Internet. The sanction was imposed on the dual (...)

Every year, the public establishment France AgriMer launches a call for tenders aimed at companies manufacturing and trading in food products in order to enable charities such as Les Restos du Cœur to organise major food distribution operations for the most disadvantaged. The submission of (...)

Does the recent conviction of Apple for abuse of economic dependence by the French Competition Authority attest to the usefulness of this qualification of national competition law in the fight against the omnipotence of the digital giants? We doubt it. For real competition issues, the (...)

The scope of operations controllable under the merger rules is the subject of quite a lot of criticism. There are said to be "holes in the racket" according to many observers. Quite frequently, proposals are made to extend the scope of such control. For a while, attention has been focused on (...)

As Regulation No 330/2010 of 20 April 2010 applicable to vertical agreements expires on 31 May 2022, it is necessary to start thinking about what to do with it as from that date. The Commission has just published a 233-page assessment, on the basis of which it will decide whether to let this (...)

Lego ’s policy of price discounts applied by Lego to its distributors led the Casino referral centre to file a complaint with the French Competition Authority. Rather than engage in litigation, the Authority is attempting to respond to this situation by resorting to the commitment procedure. At (...)

With the ruling handed down on 8 July 2020, it is hoped that the litigation initiated by Infineon Technologies regarding its participation in the card chip cartel will finally be over. It will be remembered that four major companies in this sector had been condemned for a cartel in the form of (...)

The parliamentary report presented by MEPs Faure-Muntian and Fasquelle is devoted to the regulation of economic activity and the power of digital platforms. Platform" is defined by reference to the current article L. 111-7, I C. conso. which refers to "any natural or legal person offering, on a (...)

It will be recalled that on 18 December 2014, the Competition Authority imposed heavy fines on the members of a cartel involving hygiene and cleaning products (Decision No. 14-D-19). L’Oréal was unable to take advantage of the leniency programme and was therefore fined the highest fine. It then (...)

Several operators of the Hyundai network, which repair Hyundai vehicles, had complained to the Competition Authority about their foreclosure from the car network. They considered this action to be unlawful because they considered that they fulfilled the criteria for the selective distribution (...)

In a roadmap published on 3 April 2020, the European Commission officially launched the process of revising the Notice on the definition of the relevant market, which had not been amended since its publication on 9 December 1997. As a first step, the Commission invited interested parties to (...)

In the banking sector, the 2000s were marked by the transition to dematerialisation. In the case of cheque cashing, this dematerialisation led to an acceleration in the transfer of sums. As a result, the bank of the issuer of the cheque (the drawer) loses the money sooner and the bank of the (...)

After laundry and hygiene products, here’s another consumer product that appears to be cartelized: compotes! The manufacturers of compotes are fined a total of more than 58 million euros. As is often the case, it was the leniency procedure that enabled the Authority to learn about this secret (...)

While French parliamentarians have just published a report on European competition law in which they advocate the disappearance of the notion of "relevant market" (P. Anato and C. The Grip, "Information report made on behalf of the European Affairs Commission on European competition law in the (...)

Ignorance of competition law or a feeling of not being subject to its laws? The liberal professions will have to learn to cope with the constraints of competition. After having condemned notaries (decision no. 19-D-12 of 24 June 2019 relating to practices implemented by notaries in real estate (...)

The envelope cartel has given rise to numerous decisions by different European and national authorities and courts. The decision adopted on 10 December 2014 by the European Commission, which sanctioned various envelope manufacturers for their participation in various cartel activities, is at (...)

On 7 December 2016, the European Commission sanctioned several banks for various cartel activities in a "single and continuous infringement" in the market for euro-denominated interest rate derivatives (EIRDs). One bank (Barclays), having disclosed the facts, was granted leniency; others (...)

The European Commission is continuing its work of education and assistance to national courts applying EU competition law in the context of civil actions for damages. After the Commission Notice on the quantification of damages (OJEU 13 June 2013) and the accompanying "practical guide" is a new (...)

Now that’s a spicy case! The Dstorage company did not lack audacity when it filed a complaint against players in the banking sector for the implementation of anti-competitive practices that gradually deprived it of the possibility of accepting payments by bank card. Practices to combat illegal (...)

Agrotechniek Metrop, a producer of liquid fertilisers, was dissolved shortly before the notification of objections, which resulted in the conviction by Decision No 18-D-26 of 20 December 2018.. For this reason, in 2018, the Authority preferred to postpone its decision on his case and wait to (...)

A round table, moderated by Professor Anne-Sophie Choné-Grimaldi, allowed the representatives of the various links in the sectors to express themselves and discuss the content of the new texts. From upstream to downstream, this roundtable brought together: For the production: Patrick Bénézit, (...)

The famous "educational work" on competition rules is clearly not yet complete. Last June, legal professionals - notaries and bailiffs - were, via their representative organisations, sanctioned by the Competition Authority for price-fixing practices (See, for similar facts, Aut. conc., No. (...)

The Competition Authority has once again just punished economic players for agreeing to exclusive import rights in overseas territories. The case concerns medical biology products, which are used by hospitals to carry out in vitro diagnostic tests. In this case, an exclusivity clause had been (...)

A good illustration of the "extraterritoriality" of competition law: the two US companies competing with each other, Mastercard and Visa, have agreed to give commitments to reduce their multilateral interchange fees on payments made within the European Economic Area (EEA) by cardholders of (...)

The commented decision concerns a very small economic sector: liquid fertilisers for soil-less cultivation (hydroponics) are only used by well-informed customers who practice particular forms of cultivation. The market is shared by a few manufacturers with a strong reputation in the sector. The (...)

The Paris Court of Appeal, hearing a civil action for compensation for the consequences of a vertical cartel practice, characterizes the anti-competitive practice and sanctions the supplier (the company Spirotechnique) to compensate the damage suffered by one of its distributors (the company (...)

The European Commission has just fined the well-known clothing company Guess nearly €40 million for having stipulated various anti-competitive clauses in its distribution contracts. The decision comes in the wake of those that have been adopted in recent years to try to build the online (...)

The Competition Authority, informed of the disputed practices by the DGCCRF, which provided it with evidence, sanctioned two cartels between household appliance manufacturers. The practice led to cost increases borne by distributors and kitchen manufacturers. The extent of the additional costs (...)

On the basis of information provided by Member States, national competition authorities and a number of professional organisations, the Commission has published a report of around 15 pages on the application of the competition rules in the agricultural sector during the period from 2012 to (...)

Following an investigation carried out by the DGCCRF, the Competition Authority, seized of its own motion, sanctioned a manufacturer of motorcycling equipment (Stihl brand), at the head of a selective distribution network, for restricting the possibility offered to its distributors to use (...)

Here is another episode in the complicated business of thermal stabilizers, this time involving the epoxidized soybean oil and esters (ESBO/esters) sector. It should already be noted that the decision is particularly difficult to read. A (simplified) reminder of the facts is necessary. By a (...)

New - expected - aspect in the endives case. It is recalled that it was after having been sanctioned, successively by the Competition Authority and then the Paris Court of Appeal, that the cartel between endives producers was brought before the magistrates of the Court of Cassation. Faced with (...)

We remember the exemplary convictions handed down in 2015 by the Competition Authority against almost all transport companies guilty of concerted practices constituting cartels. Three years later, it was the turn of the Paris Court of Appeal to rule. It took no less than 190 pages for the Court (...)

The origin of this case lies in the filing of a complaint by several companies of the Econocom group, active in the IT maintenance sector, against three well-known computer hardware manufacturers: IBM, HP and Oracle. In this connection, it should be remembered that the maintenance activity may (...)

The agricultural sector is at the heart of the attention and topicality of competition law. In 2017, when the "États généraux de l’alimentation" were held, which provided a forum for discussion and negotiation for the various players in the production and distribution chain, the CJEU handed down (...)

By 2012, the Commission had sanctioned 14 international groups for participating in four separate agreements relating to the pricing of international air transit services. After the traditional actions for annulment and full jurisdiction brought before the Court of First Instance, the case was (...)

The FIFG survey commissioned by the Authority, the results of which have just been released, reveals that the French are "overwhelmingly opposed to cartels", with 73% believing that this practice is harmful to consumers. Eighty per cent consider the practice of exclusionary conduct by a (...)

The distinction between horizontal and vertical agreements is very clear in theoretical terms, but is less clear when it comes to specific assumptions that are difficult to classify. Above all, even though on the surface the two types of agreements appear to be opposed, in practice their (...)

It will be recalled that in a judgment of 28 June 2016, the EU Court of First Instance condemned Telefonica for inserting a non-competition clause in the divestiture contract between the Spanish (Telefonica) and Portuguese (PT) operators for the control of the Brazilian telephone operator Vivo. (...)

In a decision that received some media attention, on March 6, 2012, the Authority condemned a number of producers and professional organizations for their participation in a cartel in the endive production and marketing sector (Dec. No. 12-D-08). Although the fines imposed remained fairly (...)

On September 29, 2016, the French Competition Authority condemned the main professional association of model agencies and several model agencies on the basis of Article L. 420-1 of the French Commercial Code, accusing them of having issued and then applied price lists established during (...)

The re-adoption procedure allows the Commission to impose a further fine of EUR 4 729 000 on the manufacturer of Printeos envelopes for its participation in the horizontal cartel involving price coordination, market sharing and exchange of sensitive information. In its original decision, the (...)

On 6 May 2015, as part of the Digital Single Market Strategy, the European Commission launched a major sector inquiry into e-commerce of consumer goods and digital content in the EU. In September 2016, the Commission published a preliminary report and submitted it for public consultation, (...)

The Court of Cassation has referred a question to the Court of Justice for a preliminary ruling on the relationship between the various derogations from the prohibition on cartels in the fruit and vegetable sector. After recalling that, as a matter of principle, the agricultural sector falls (...)

It will be remembered that after the European Commission’s heavy condemnation in 2010 of eleven air freight carriers for their participation in a cartel, the Court of First Instance had to annul the Commission’s decision in December 2015 because of a procedural flaw. It appeared that the (...)

In dismissing Samsung’s appeal, the Court of Justice confirms the penalty imposed on that undertaking for participating in the cartel of cathode-ray tubes for television sets and computer monitors, which has been split into two single and continuous infringements, one relating to CPT (computer (...)

In a Decision of 27 February 2017, the Authority dismissed two practices from which car rental companies benefit. The first consisted in informing each other, on a monthly basis, of the figures achieved at Paris airports, the second in having introduced a ’station surcharge’. With regard to the (...)

It will be recalled that by a decision of 18 December 2013 (No. 13-D-21)In a decision handed down in April 2007, the Competition Authority sanctioned Schering-Plough, which markets the drug called "Subutex" (used in the treatment of heroin addiction as a substitute leading to detoxification), (...)

Case 3 illustrates the practices of an intermediation platform referencing professionals; The case was studied in the scope of UE, German, French, American, Chinese and Japanese laws. An economist has also shared his point of view. 1. The Moov’ is an intermediation platform with a network of (...)

For several years, the European institutions and competition authorities have been focusing their attention on the digital sector (see The Digital Agenda for Europe, launched in May 2010). The international colloquium held at the University of Paris Nanterre, on 17 November 2016, with the (...)

By decision of 13 March 2012, the Competition Authority had sanctioned a Franco-German cartel implemented on the market for flour for human consumption. Several cartels were sanctioned: first, a cartel between German and French millers aimed at sharing the market territorially, and second, two (...)

Dedicated to the modernization of several regulated professions (notaries, bailiffs, legal auctioneers…), this Trends issue offers a contribution by Virginie Beaumeunier, French competition authority’s general rapporteur, describing intended goals and the method used by the Competition Authority; (...)

The model agency sector has just been hit by a decision of the Authority sanctioning, for anti-competitive agreements, the main professional union, SYNAM, and several model agencies that are members of this union. The companies in question are accused of having drawn up tariff schedules which (...)

The Commission published on 15 September its preliminary conclusions on the sector inquiry launched on electronic commerce. Unsurprisingly, the emphasis is on the growing importance of the digital sector. The practices most commonly found in this sector are the subject of rich analyses as to (...)

On 30 June 2010, the European Commission sanctioned nearly twenty companies for taking part in a cartel in the prestressing steel sector, which dates back to the 1980s and only ended in September 2002. For the record, the first information on this cartel was sent to the European Commission in (...)

The judgment on the question referred for a preliminary ruling follows the question referred by the Paris Court of Appeal concerning the compatibility with Article 101 TFEU of the practice of requiring a licensee, party to a patent licensing agreement, to pay a royalty when the patent has been (...)

The two judgments handed down on 28 June 2016 relating to the Spanish and Portuguese telecommunications markets concern a non-competition clause inserted in an agreement between the two main telecommunications operators in Spain (Telefonica) and Portugal (Portugal Telecom, known as PT) on the (...)

It should be remembered that it was the Order of 13 November 2008 on the modernisation of competition regulation that granted the Minister of the Economy the power to sanction what are commonly known as "anti-competitive micro-practices". Article L. 464-9 of the C. com. defines these practices (...)

In a press release of 27 January 2016, the Commission announces that it has just sanctioned a new cartel practice in the car parts sector. This time it involved a cartel between three Japanese manufacturers, suppliers of alternators and starter motors. Even though it was initiated and (...)

In its judgment of 20 January 2016, the Court of Justice dismissed the appeal brought by Toshiba Corporation in the power transformers cartel case, in which the Commission had fined Toshiba Corporation €13.2 million (decision of 7 October 2009, COMP/39.129), a decision upheld by the General (...)

Revealed through the leniency programme, the cartel between 21 air carriers to fix a ’fuel surcharge’ and a ’security surcharge’ had been condemned by the Commission by a decision of 9 December 2010 (Decision C(2010) 7694 final). It will be remembered that Air France had thus been penalised to the (...)

Everybody remembers the noisy condemnation pronounced by the Competition Authority in the so-called "endives cartel", a cartel which, uniting multiple professional bodies, had allowed producers to agree on a minimum selling price for endives (Decision No 12-D-08 of 6 March 2012). The decision (...)

The French Competition Authority has sued Nintendo for price fixing in connection with the sale of its Wii console, following a referral from the Ministry of the Economy. The investigation was initially conducted by the services of the Interregional Competition Investigation Brigade of (...)

The well-known sports goods brand Adidas distributes its products through a selective distribution network. Until recently, it prohibited its distributors from using the services of "marketplaces", those Internet players which allow the listing of products of multiple brands, such as e-Bay or (...)

The directive on actions for damages for infringements of the competition law has been published on 26 november 2014. This On Topic aims to show the principal issues that arise from the expected implementation of the directive on national laws. Presentation ---- Anne-Sophie Choné-Grimaldi (...)

The second session allows studying the functions of the undertaking in the relationships between the legal systems in competition matter. It appears that it plays a role of interface in the relations between the European Union and its Member States both in antitrust law (Pr. Chone-Grimaldi, Mr. (...)

At a time when, right up to the top of the State, the debate rages on the real or only presumed virtues of free competition, the French Competition Authority publishes, as it does every year, its annual report. In 2014, its activity will be in line with that of other years, even if there will (...)

This first roundtable of the conference held in Caen the 4th October 2013 was dedicated to the scope of the Regulation n°330/2010. In the first contribution, Ms Chroné-Grimaldi underlines that even when a practice does not affect trade between Member States, French Competition Authority and (...)

Created by the Law on the Modernisation of the Economy (LME) of 4 August 2008, the Competition Authority succeeded the Competition Council. In addition to the presentation of its activities as such, the Authority has chosen this year to devote its thematic section to the link between (...)

Obstruction is a concept forged by the Court of Justice of the European Union in order to give meaning and effectiveness to the objective of creating a single European market. Initially aimed at framing the commercial regulations of the Member States, its scope has gradually been widened. At (...)

This unique book considers competition policy and regulation in light of the recent introduction of the anti-monopoly law in China. It addresses the relevance of competition policy for China from a broad theoretical and practical perspective, bringing together lawyers and economists from China, (...)

The context for this book is the increasingly complex relationship between economic theory and competition law which gives rise to lively political and academic debate on the direction competition law should take in a more global and innovation-oriented market place. The authors adopt a (...)

The Competition Council published its annual report for 2007 in July. The Council welcomes, as in previous years, the decline in the volume of its stock of pending cases. The number of referrals remained stable in 2007 and the number of cases dealt with increased. The development of its (...)

The book by George Cumming, Brad Spitz and Ruth Janal offers an interesting study of the English, French and German laws relating to civil actions under EC competition law. The analysis is rigorous and richly documented; it opportunely complements the reflection carried out by the European (...)