Jean-Mathieu Cot

Use your imagination. You are young, you don’t buy your music, but you listen to it "streaming" on Deezer. You thought you were dancing the jerk on the Arctic Monkees, and now you’re offered Serge Lama or Gilbert Becaud, well-known Warner artists. The situation would be no less upsetting for a (...)

The project was ambitious, since the world’s number one can maker, and Europe’s number two, wanted to take control of the European number one, itself the world’s number two. Add to this the fact that the parties’ combined market shares were very substantial, that they were increasing significantly (...)

Viewed through the prism of merger control, the Law of 6 August 2015 for growth, activity and equal economic opportunities, or "Loi Macron", focuses on certain aspects of the notification and merger control procedure and clarifies a point concerning thresholds in the overseas departments and (...)

This is a remarkable case in more ways than one. Firstly, it is remarkable because, while the change from joint to sole control is clearly a merger control issue, this type of transaction does not normally raise competition concerns (for a rare example of a detailed examination of a change from (...)

The acquisition by the Castel group of six subsidiaries of the Patriarche group had especially marked the briefs because it was the first decision in which the Competition Authority had used the UPP test (V. la déc. 12-DCC-92, v. égal. D. Tayar and M. de l’Estang "The Competition Authority (...)

Faced with a reduction from four to three competitors or, worse, from three to two competitors, a competition authority must be vigilant. These market developments, more often referred to in English as "four to three" or "three to two" - more rarely referred to in French as "quatre-à-trois" or (...)

"For simpler, more coherent and strategic merger control in Europe". How can one not subscribe to such a programme? The report of the French Competition Authority of 16 December 2013 to the Minister for the Economy and Finance of which this is the title is already better known under the name of (...)

When the French Competition Authority authorized, on July 23, 2012, Canal Plus to acquire from the Bolloré group exclusive control of the Direct 8 and Direct Star channels, this decision was partially overshadowed by another decision issued the same day by the Authority, which again authorized (...)

Food distribution is still by far the sector of activity that gives rise to the greatest number of concentration operations in France. It accounted for 34% of decisions in 2012. Most often, these are cases that have a happy ending. Commitments are rare. Phases 2 are exceptional. Casino’s (...)

Eur. com. dec. art. 22, § 3 R. 139/2004 of 4 July 2012, London Stock Exchange / LCH Clearnet, aff. COMP/M.6502 This is a concentration that did not have a Community dimension within the meaning of Regulation 139/2004. However, the acquisition of LCH Clearnet by the London Stock Exchange (...)

EC, Dec. 21, 2012, Canal Plus, No. 353856 EC, Dec. 21, 2012, Canal Plus, No. 362347 One of the qualities generally recognized at Canal Plus is its talent for producing successful series with large audiences. The interest generated by the story of its acquisition of TPS was certainly neither (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 12-DCC-129 of 5 September 2012 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of the Keolis group by SNCF Participations. While the change from joint to sole control undoubtedly constitutes a change in the quality of control exercised by the shareholders and thus a (...)

Aut. Concord, decree n° 12-D-15 of 9 July 2012 relating to compliance with the commitments contained in the decision authorising the acquisition of Socopa Viandes by Groupe Bigard. After Canal+’s conviction in 2011 for failure to comply with the commitments that had conditioned the authorization (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-DCC-187 of December 13, 2011 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of Quartier Français Spiritueux by Compagnie Financière Européenne de Prise de Participation Rum in non-negligible quantities, a few other alcohols and spirits, in varying proportions, barriers to (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-D-12 of September 20, 2011 relating to compliance with the commitments contained in the decision authorizing the acquisition of TPS and CanalSatellite by Vivendi Universal and Canal Plus Group That first time, Canal Plus would have been fine! On September 21, 2011, the (...)

Eur. comm. 24 February 2006, Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company/Lanitis Bros. case COMP/M.4124, published 31 March 2011 It took particular patience to read the decision in Case M. 4124 - Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Company/Lanitis Bros, where the Commission rejected the request for referral (...)

Comm. eur., dec. art. 6, §2 R.139/2004 of 26 January 2011, Intel/McAfee, case COMP/M.5984 "Intel inside": even in a Commission decision, this arouses the curiosity and interest of the competition law specialist. Taking an interest because Intel is known as much for its chips as for its (...)

The Competition Authority reached full speed with its merger control practice in 2010, clearing 198 mergers, including two cases in phase 2 decisions. Merger control regulations which were transferred from the DGCCRF to the Competition Authority only recently, in 2009 have been well integrated (...)

Eur. comm. 10 November 2010, Crédit Agricole/Casa di Risparmio della Spezia/Agences Intesa Sanpaolo, case COMP/M.5960 On 20 September 2010, Crédit Agricole notified the European Commission of the acquisition of an Italian retail bank, Cassa di Risparmio della Spezia S.p.A., and of around 100 (...)

Trib. EU, 6 July 2010, Aer Lingus Group v. Commission, Case T-411/07 There’s passion, there’s passion in this Irish story. Three days after the Irish Stock Exchange floated the Irish national airline Aer Lingus on the Dublin Stock Exchange, its major low-cost competitor Ryanair launched a (...)

Eur. comm., 6 January 2010, Kraft Foods/Cadbury, Case COMP/M.5644 There are some products for which market tests can be more testing than others. In order to properly assess the competitive effects of the takeover of Cadbury by Kraft Foods, the European Commission has examined with the utmost (...)

ECJ, 19 July 2009, Commission v Schneider Electric SA, Case C-440/07 P The Schneider/Legrand merger will have given the European Commission a lot of trouble. This time it’s over: the Court has whistled the end of the game. But there were so many twists and turns before it came to this! All in (...)

CFI, 19 June 2009, Qualcomm v Commission, Case T-48/04 On my left is Daimler Chrysler, better known as Mercedes-Benz in the world of heavy goods vehicles in Germany, where it accounts for half of all registrations, and is, moreover, the main player in traffic telematics; on my right is (...)

EC Commission, 21 October 2008, StatoilHydro / ConocoPhillips, Case COMP/M.4919 In March 2007 the Commission had cleared the merger between Statoil and Norsk Hydro in the first phase and without conditions (Case COMP/M.4545), thus giving an easy blessing to this marriage between two oil and (...)

EC. Comm, 3 October 2008, American Express / Fortis / Alpha Card, case. COMP/M.5241 For those who have rubbed shoulders with it, the distinction between full-function and non-full-function joint ventures is not always straightforward. Yet the issue is important: the former fall under Community (...)

CFI, 9 September 2008, MyTravel v Commission, Case T-212/03 Some companies contribute more than others to the advancement of the law. Airtours’ reputation among competition lawyers is linked even more to the Tribunal’s criteria for defining a collective dominant position than to its qualities as (...)

Min. Eco, 22 May 2008, Groupe Epis-Centre/Celbert, aff. C2008-30, BOCCRF n° 5 bis of 19 June 2008 When a big guy eats a little one, he has to make sure it’s not a "maverick". This is what the Minister for the Economy reminds us in this case in which he authorised the takeover of miller Celbert (...)

1. I would like to begin by telling you about Mr. K. Wolfgang K., a German citizen, who visited San Francisco, California, in May 2005. This trip was not a business trip, since at that time Mr. K. was unemployed. It was also not a vacation. Wolfgang K. went to San Francisco to make an (...)

Cass. soc., 13 November 2007, Nestlé, No. 06-12.339 Our column rarely calls for us to take an interest in the rulings handed down by the Social Chamber of the Court of Cassation. The reported judgment is an exception. On November 13, 2007, the Social Chamber ruled for the first time on the (...)

ECJ, 18 December 2007, Cementbouw Handel & Industrie BV v. Commission, case C-202/06 By dismissing the appeal brought by Cementbouw on 18 December 2007, the Court of Justice has put an end to a judicial series which was not devoid of imagination in competition law. In this atypical case, (...)

Conc. conc. opinion no. 07-A-10 of 26 September 2007 relating to the merger of the activities of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Unibail Holding SA in the congress and exhibition site management and trade fair organisation sector. Min. Eco, 13 November 2007, CCIP/Unibail, Case (...)

EC Comm, 22 May 2007, Universal/BMG Music Publishing, Case COMP/M. 4404 Popular music was again a major topic of discussion at the Board in 2007. On the one hand, the Universal/BMG Music Publishing decision was issued on May 22, 2007. On the other hand, the Commission simultaneously opened its (...)

Min. Eco, January 4, 2008, France Telecom / Compagnie Européenne de Téléphonie SA, aff. C2007-144, BOCCRF n° 1 bis of January 25, 2008 France Telecom, the incumbent operator in the telephony sector in France, which is covered more in this review of anti-competitive practices than in the review of (...)

Min. Eco, November 23, 2007, SFR / Somart / Debitel, aff. C2007-150, BOCCRF n° 1 bis of January 25, 2008 The minister was called upon to judge the takeover of the virtual mobile telephony operator Débitel by SFR and Somart and was faced with an unusual and delicate situation. It must be (...)

CFI, 11 July 2007, Schneider Electric SA v Commission, Case T-351/03 This time the Commission should have got the message: the decision to prohibit the Schneider Electric/Legrand merger of 10 October 2001 was not a good one. The message had already got through once, in the form of the (...)

Min. Eco, 16 May 2007, Barry Callebaut/Nestlé assets, aff. C2007-66, BOCCRF n° 5 bis of 31 May 2007 The notion of concentration does not bother too much with formal considerations, which are essential in other disciplines of law. A concentration can certainly take the form of the acquisition of (...)

Comm EC, 23 April 2007, GE/Smiths Aerospace, Case Com/M.4561, OJEU No C. 133 of 15 June 2007. The European Commission prohibited General Electric’s acquisition of Honeywell in 2001. This decision was the starting point for particularly heated debates on the non-horizontal effects of mergers. (...)

EC Commission, 26 February 2007, LGI/Telenet, Case COMP/M.4521, OJ C. 99 of 3 May 2007, p. 3. Can the order in which complex transactions occur have an impact on the European Commission’s assessment of the effects of a merger? This was argued by the parties in the LGI/Telenet case, which (...)

CE, Sect. 31 January 2007, France Antilles company, No. 294896 The issue may have been discussed, but there is no longer any room for doubt: French merger control fully applies to the daily news press. And rather twice than once in the case reported, since the Conseil d’Etat annulled the (...)

Min. Éco, October 13, 2006, France Télévisions, TF1 / France 24, aff. C2006-83, BOCCRF n° 8 bis of October 26, 2006 Is the authorisation of a concentration final, or can the Minister for the Economy review the operation if the parties modify the activity originally envisaged? If you ask them, (...)

Min. Éco, August 24, 2006, Sodiaal / Orlait, aff. C2006-51, BOCCRF n° 8 bis of October 26, 2006 Advertising guarantees us pure sensations with dairy products. Let’s see what is happening with the decision of the Minister of Economy to authorise the acquisition of Orlait by Sodiaal. The first (...)

CFI, 13 July 2006, Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association (Impala) v Commission, "Sony/BMG", Case T-464/04. On 13 July 2006, the Court of First Instance of the European Communities (CFI) annulled a Commission decision of 19 July 2004 authorising the proposed concentration between (...)

Min. Eco, May 31, 2006, SPIR / S3G, Free Press Sector, Case C2006-11 French merger control applies fully to the press sector (Min. Éco, 28 October 2005, aff. C2005-18 and Cons. conc. opinion No. 05-A-18 of 11 October 2005, Ouest-France, BOCCRF No. 11 of 16 Dec. 2005; ConcurrencesNo. 1-2006, p. (...)

EC Comm, 27 April 2006, Seagate / Maxtor, Case COMP/M.4100 A merger creating or strengthening a leading position in a market does not always raise competition law concerns. The decision to clear the merger between Seagate and Maxtor, both manufacturers of hard disk drives, is a good example of (...)

CFI, 23 February 2006, Cementbouw Handel & Industrie v Commission, Case T-282/02, not yet published in the ECR. Conditional approval of a merger sometimes has even more far-reaching consequences than certain prohibitions. The Haniel/Cementbouw/CVK Commission Decision of 26 June 2002 was an (...)

EC Commission, 15 February 2006, Eiffage / Macquarie / APRR, Case COMP/M. 4087. The situation is rare enough to be reported. In its Eiffage /Macquarie/APRR decision, the Commission purely and simply authorises a merger on the basis mainly of the competitive analysis carried out a few months (...)

CFI, 14 December 2005, General Electric v Commission, Case T-210/01. The European Commission’s ban on General Electric’s proposed acquisition of Honeywell on July 3, 2001, had struck a chord. Not only was the Commission prohibiting a major transaction that the US competition authorities had (...)

Eur. Com, 09.08.2005, Carlyle / Otor, case COMP/M.3870 The principle laid down in Article 7(1) of Regulation 139/2004 is unequivocal: a concentration notified to the Commission must not be put into effect until it has been cleared by the Commission. And forgetting the notification, and (...)

EC Comm, 15 July 2005, Procter & Gamble/Gillette, Case COMP/M.3732 Since the Tetra Laval/Sidel case, the Commission has been very cautious when examining the restrictions of competition that could result from a conglomerate effect (ECJ, 15 Feb. 2005, Case C-12/03). However, it continues to (...)

EC Comm, 23 May 2005, Reuters/Telerate, Case COMP/M.3692 A structural problem, a structural solution: the European Commission in principle prefers structural commitments to behavioural commitments (see, notice on admissible remedies, OJ C. 68 of 2 March 2001, p. 3, spec. point 13 and the code (...)

Min. Eco, April 15, 2005, 3I Groupe PLC/Groupe Zolpan, Case C2005-24 Since the entry into force of Law 2004-1343 of December 9, 2004, Article L.430-3 of the French Commercial Code provides that it is possible to notify a proposed concentration even before the signature of an irrevocable (...)

Min. Eco, 29 March 2005, SBB Recycling / PPS, Case C2005-9 The concept of a concentration is not only to be assessed on the basis of the rights of the parties to the transaction but also on the basis of the factual circumstances. The organisation, outside the board of directors, of a project (...)

Min. Éco, February 21, 2005, Société Boiron/Laboratoires Dolisos, aff. C2004-114 Conc. conc. notice no. 05-A-01 of January 7, 2005, Société Boiron/Laboratoires Dolisos Can a merger allowing the creation of a quasi-monopoly in a market protected by high barriers to entry be allowed? In the (...)

Min. Eco, 4 February 2005, GDF / CGST, aff. C2004-180 It is difficult for a competition authority to assess a transaction whose implementation is in practice delayed for several years. This is all the more true when the relevant market is in the process of liberalisation, such as the gas (...)

Law No. 2004-1343 of 9 December 2004 on the simplification of law (notification of a proposed concentration: Article 83-II) The new Article L. 430-3 of the French Commercial Code makes it possible to notify a proposed concentration. It no longer makes the existence of an irrevocable commitment (...)

Min. Eco, October 27, 2004, TF1-AB/TMC, aff’d C2004-127 The joint acquisition by TF1 and AB of 80% of the share capital of Télé Monte Carlo ("TMC") was authorised on 27 October 2004 following an undertaking by the purchasers not to grant discounts coupled between the purchase of advertising space (...)

Min. Éco, 16 August 2004, Seb/Moulinex, aff. C2004-40 Concordance No. 04-A-16 of 28 July 2004 concerning the acquisition of part of the assets of the Moulinex Group by Groupe SEB. The acquisition of Moulinex by SEB had been authorized by the Minister for the Economy on the basis of the ’failing (...)

EC Commission, Art. 9(4) R. No. 4064/89, 4 June 2004, Accor/Colony/Desseigne-Barrière/JV, Case COMP/M.3373. The European Commission’s referral decision of 4 June 2004 in the case of Accor/Colony/Desseigne-Barrière/JV is a rare example of a referral to the competition authorities of a Member State (...)

CE Sect, 6 February 2004, Royal Philips Electronic and others, No. 249267 The combination of SEB and Moulinex will certainly have contributed to the formation of competition law of a jurisprudential nature, which is not surprising, given the number of opinions, decisions and judgments since (...)