


Etienne Pfister
Etienne Pfister is a Partner at RBB Economics, based in Paris. He has over 15 years of experience in competition economics. Prior to joining RBB in 2022, he was the Chief Economist of the French Competition Authority and, prior to that, head of unit at the French Competition Authority. While at the French Competition Authority, Etienne has worked on a vast range of competition cases, including horizontal and vertical mergers, abuse of dominance cases, vertical restraints, horizontal agreements, as well as estimation of damages arising from anticompetitive practices. His experience covers a wide spectrum of industries, such as online platforms, telecoms, media and advertising, pharmaceuticals, fast moving consumer goods, automotive and retail. Etienne speaks regularly at competition policy conferences and has published numerous articles on competition economics. He has been giving lectures in competition economics and competition law for many years in various French universities. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics.
Linked authors
17998 | Conferences





Articles
40885 Review
2371
The integration of public interest considerations is not only desirable, but possible because of the permeability of the competition rules to the reception of well-being by the competitive parameters of quality, choice and innovation in addition to that of price. The scope for progress depends (...)
941
This series of articles analyses French competition policy in the field of merger control; in particular it addresses the issue of the implementation of the ex post evaluation mechanism. This set is introduced by Jean-Mathieu Cot (COT LAW), and gathers contributions from Séverine Schrameck (...)
204
During the Nasse Seminar organized the 27th of September of 2017, Anne Perrot (associate at the consulting firm MAPP) and Jacques-Philippe Gunther (lawyer at Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP) talked about excessive prices. The seminar was animed by Etienne Pfister, chief of economic (...)
1003
During the Nasse Seminar organized the 24th of May of 2018, Emmanuel Combe (Vice-president of the Competition authority) and Jérôme Philippe (economist, lawyer at Freshfields Brukhaus Dringer) talked about the selective distribution, its evolution and its application to the luxury sector. The (...)
1805
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 (...)
191
During the Nasse Seminar organized the 22nd of June of 2016, Jérôme Philippe and Jacques Crémer talked about the competition between digital platforms. This seminar was presented by Etienne Pfister, chief of the economic department of the Competition authority. Introduction by Etienne Pfister (...)
86
During the Nasse Seminar organized the 20th of September of 2016, Virginie Beaumeunier (Deputy General Rapporteur of the Competition Authority), Maya Bacache (Professor of economics, Telecom ParisTech) and Laurent Flochel (economist, vice-president of Charles River Associates firm) talked ad (...)
992
This set of contributions presents the various competitive effects associated with minority shareholdings. It also considers how these effects can be dealt with either through notifications to the competition authority, especially with the case of the German and British legislations, or through (...)
1101
Interview conducted by David Sevy Compass Lexecon. You are the new Chief Economist of the Competition Authority as of 1 May 2013. Where and when did your interest in market regulation and competition policy in particular originate, and how does it fit in with your background? My doctoral (...)
3033
The De minimis communication of the European Commission defines under which conditions agreements between firms will not be considered to restrict competition in a sensitive way. The three contributions in this article discuss its effectiveness in promoting legal security for firms, especially (...)
2056
Nowadays, commitments decisions of the competition authorities are, most of the time, preceded by a consultation of third parties. These "market tests" have become a central step of the antitrust procedure and merger control. The authors of this Tendances present their experience in using this (...)
2583
Paradoxically, competition law today is frequently used more as a weapon of defence than to challenge networks, and notably against certain rules of national law. When relied on as a means of challenging networks, competition law is mainly used either to circumvent the networks, or to gain (...)
3126
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 (...)
3241
This set of three papers is derived from the training session on the predatory strategies organised by Concurrences Review that has held on 5th July 2010 in Paris. The first paper is a short introduction of the Economist Etienne Pfister presenting the preemptive strategies and how these (...)
2725
This article reviews the various potential effects of exclusive supply agreements on competition and firm investments and compares it to the reasoning made by the Conseil or Autorité de la concurrence in its decisions. In particular, this analytical framework is put into perspective with the (...)
4520
La puissance d’achat a fait l’objet ces dernières années de nombreux rapports et forums en droit de la concurrence. Dans le cas français, elle est sans doute appelée à jouer un rôle accru dans le jeu concurrentiel en vertu des réformes récentes de la réglementation de la distribution de détail. Cet (...)
6937
This article surveys the conclusions of theoretical models evaluating the impact of a ban on price discrimination in input markets. Then it considers the potential gains associated with the negociability of general terms of sales, compared to a reform allowing retailers to diminish their (...)
3970
This article presents the results of a survey carried out by the Competition Council for the mission chaired by Marie-Dominique Hagelsteen on the negotiability of general terms and conditions of sale. It shows that, despite concerns about the abuse of buying power sometimes allegedly committed (...)
Books

Prologue « A quoi sert la concurrence ? » Telle est la question posée à 100 auteurs, question que se pose peut être encore, 10 ans après avoir lancé leur belle revue « Concurrences », l’équipe (...)

See the "avant-propos" of Laurence Idot, Frédéric Jenny et Nicolas Charbit the Foreword of Martine Béhar-Touchais The full list of contributors and the Table of Contents 100 contributions for the (...)

Le Dictionnaire de droit de la concurrence, sous la direction scientifique du Professeur Muriel Chagny et Emmanuel Combe, rassemble plus de 250 définitions essentielles à la bonne compréhension du (...)