Olivier Billard

In line with the statement of the Commission’s Executive Vice-President Magrethe Vestager on the occasion of the 24th Competition Conference of theInternational Bar Association held on 11 September 2020 (as a reminder, see D. Tayar and E. Xueref-Poviac, "La Commission européenne se déclare (...)

For the record, in its decision No. 19-DCC-141 of July 24, 2019 concerning the acquisition of exclusive control of Mondadori France by Reworld Media, the French Competition Authority ["the Authority"] authorized the acquisition of Mondadori France by Reworld Media subject to conditions. In the (...)

This case has the particular interest of illustrating concretely an aspect of merger litigation little explored by the case law, relating to the interpretation of behavioural commitments. Without going into the details of the argument, we will simply outline the essential elements. On 18 June (...)

On 11 September 2015, the Hutchison Group, a shareholder in the UK mobile phone operator ’Three’, notified the European Commission of its proposed acquisition of its competitor ’O2’, a UK subsidiary of the Spanish operator Telefonica Europe plc. On 30 October 2015, the European Commission opened a (...)

In the space of two weeks and in the midst of a health crisis, the European Commission issued two decisions lifting the commitments entered into by Nidec and Takeda in the context of their respective mergers. The decision concerning Takeda was particularly commented on, no doubt because it was (...)

Under Article 14(1)(a) of Regulation 139/2004, the Commission may impose fines of up to 1 % of the turnover of the undertaking concerned where the undertaking concerned intentionally or negligently provides incorrect or misleading information in a notification. The Commission imposed for the (...)

The European Court of Justice ruling of 4 March 2020 marks the end of the Marine Harvest saga, namely the acquisition by Norwegian salmon producer and processor Marine Harvest (now Mowi ASA) of its competitor Morpol. On 18 December 2012, Marine Harvest acquired 48.5% of Morpol’s capital from (...)

On 21 August 2019, the French Competition Authority authorised the acquisition of sole control of the SASP Olympique Gymnaste Club de Nice Côte d’Azur, which manages the OGC Nice football club, by Ineos Industries Holding, a company incorporated under English law and belonging to the Ineos group. (...)

On April 30, 2018, CMA in the United Kingdom was notified of the proposed acquisition of Asda (a subsidiary of the Walmart group active in the UK’s food-dominated supermarket sector) by its competitor Sainsbury’s. The acquisition is expected to be completed by the end of the year. As the CMA (...)

By Decision No. 19-DCC-15 of 29 January 2019the Competition Authority has authorised the acquisition of Alsa France and the intangible assets necessary for the manufacture and sale of food products under the Alsa and Moench brands by the Dr. Oetker group (owner of the Ancel and Dr. Oetker (...)

On 26 October 2018, the European Commission adopted a decision approving the acquisition of sole control of EMI Music Publishing by Sony. Sony (via its subsidiary Sony/ATV) and EMI are both music publishing companies, i.e. they both exploit authors’ rights by granting licences to the users of (...)

The case that is the subject of this commentary is unprecedented. In a decision dated 19 July 2018, the Minister of the Economy authorised, subject to a commitment to maintain employment, Cofigeo’s acquisition of exclusive control of the "ready-made meals" division of the Agripole food group, (...)

The prohibition on the early implementation of concentrations has been the subject of particularly extensive decision-making practice and case law recently - a sign of the great attention that the competition authorities are paying to this issue. However, it is not always clear what exactly (...)

When a firm that took part in a cartel faces the risk that the Commission imposes a fine that is disproportionate as compared to its ability to pay and that could lead it to exit from the market, it may explore various procedural options to request that its economic and financial situation be (...)

On December 11, 2017, Apple announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire Shazam, a UK company offering an audio recognition service. The Shazam application allows to identify a piece of music from its smartphone, i.e. to recognize the author and the title (its capabilities are already (...)

By a decision of 13 December 2017, the French Competition Authority authorised, subject to commitments, the merger of the Coopérative des Agriculteurs de la Mayenne (’CAM 53’) with the agricultural cooperative Terrena, one of France’s leading agricultural and agri-food cooperative groups. It is the (...)

On 7 September 2017, the Court of Justice of the European Union delivered a particularly important judgment in the field of merger control, interpreting, in the context of a preliminary question, the concept of "concentration" contained in Article 3 of Regulation 139/2004 on the control of (...)

By a decision of 23 June 2017, the Competition Authority authorised, subject to commitments, the acquisition of sole control of MédiPôle-Partenaires ("MPP") by Elsan Holding ("Elsan"). This merger between the number 2 (Elsan) and number 3 (MPP) in the market for private clinics in France gave (...)

The case had made a lot of noise. In the spring of 2012, the American freight forwarding and express parcel delivery company UPS announced a takeover bid for the capital of its Dutch competitor TNT. The bid valued TNT at €5.1 billion and would have created a global giant with a turnover of no (...)

In a decision of 10 August 2016, the European Commission authorised, after a phase 1 and without commitments, the acquisition of joint control of Setefi Services and Intesa Sanpaolo Card, two companies specialising in card payment processing, by the two US private equity funds Bain Capital and (...)

On July 6, 2016, the Conseil d’État handed down its decision on the merits of the action brought by Primagaz and Vitogaz for the annulment of Competition Authority Decision 15-DCC-53 of May 15, 2015 relating to the acquisition of sole control of Totalgaz by UGI Bordeaux Holding.which already (...)

By decision of 23 March 2016, the European Commission has approved, subject to important commitments, the acquisition of sole control of Dansk Fuels (Shell), Shell’s Danish wholesale and retail fuel business, by Statoil Fuel and Retail (³cSFR³d). Relevant markets The markets concerned by the (...)

On 21 March 2016, the Council of State handed down two judgments of principle on the admissibility of appeals against so-called "soft law" acts adopted by independent administrative authorities. One of these two cases concerned the interpretation of an injunction issued to Canal Plus Group (...)

While it seems superfluous to present TF1, the same does not apply to FIFL, a holding company controlled exclusively by Mr Fabrice Larue, which controls in particular FLCP. The latter held all the capital and voting rights of the company Newen, known for producing and selling the series Plus (...)

On April 13, 2015, the La Dépêche du Midi Group notified the acquisition of exclusive control of the company du Journal du Midi Libre ("the Operation"). By its decision of 4 June 2015, the Authority authorised the Operation at the end of a Phase I. This decision is particularly interesting in (...)

Until 2010, Eurostar was a cooperation between SNCF, the British rail transport operator LCR and the Belgian national railway operator SNCB: each railway company owned its own assets and was responsible for managing the service on its own national territory. On 17 June 2010, the Commission (...)

The European Commission published on February 25, 2016 a Phase II decision approving Zimmer’s acquisition of its competitor Biomet. Both companies are both active in the European Economic Area countries in various markets for the production and marketing of orthopaedic prostheses (in particular (...)

CAT, Jan. 9, 2015, SeaFrance On 9 January 2015, the Competition Appeal Tribunal ("the CFI") delivered a new judgment in the SeaFrance case, a case which is therefore still making waves both in merger law and in State aid law (the CFI delivered a judgment on 6 February 2015 in Case T-1/12 (...)

Comm. eur. 3 Oct. 2014, S.O.6, para. 1(b) Facebook c/ Whatsapp, COMP/M.7217 On 29 August 2014, Facebook notified the European Commission of its acquisition of Whatsapp, a company that publishes the well-known mobile application for instant messaging between users. The Commission cleared the (...)

In a decision dated June 4, 2014, the French Competition Authority authorized, subject to structural commitments relating to 38 outlets currently operated directly or under franchise, the acquisition of sole control of the Nocibé S.A.S. group and its 466 outlets by Advent International (...)

On June 4, 2015, the European Commission published the Phase II decision it adopted on May 8, 2014 in Case M.6905 - INEOS / Solvay / JV relating to the creation of a full-function joint venture between INEOS and Solvay (the "Operation") which will be active in the production and marketing of (...)

By a decision dated February 10, 2014, the French Competition Authority authorized, at the end of Phase I, the acquisition of exclusive control by Canal Plus Group (hereinafter "Canal+"), via its subsidiary Canal Plus Overseas (hereinafter "Canal+ Overseas"), of four subsidiaries of Loret (...)

Following its merger with the US group Bcom3 in 2002, an operation which was the subject of Decision COMP/M.2785 of 18 June 2002, the Publicis group has embarked on a new stage in its international development by merging with the US group Omnicom. On 9 January 2014, the European Commission (...)

Eur. comm., Dec. 8, §1, R.139/2004 of 13 April 2012, Telefónica UK/Vodafone UK/Everything Everywhere/JV, Case COMP/M.6314. By a decision of 4 September 2012, the European Commission (³cthe Commission³d) has authorised the creation of a joint venture (³cthe JV³d) by Telefónica UK, Vodafone UK and (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 12-DCC-154 of 7 November 2012 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of assets of SeaFrance by Groupe Eurotunnel OFT, dec. n° ME/5570/12 of 19 October 2012 relating to the acquisition by Groupe Eurotunnel of certain assets of the former SeaFrance company. On 30 (...)

Aut. Concord, dec. 12-DCC-100 of July 23, 2012 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of TPS and CanalSatellite by Vivendi and Canal Plus Group On 23 July 2012, the Competition Authority (hereinafter ’the Authority’) issued two decisions concerning the Canal Plus Group (hereinafter (...)

Aut. Concord, Dec. 12-DCC-101 of July 23, 2012 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of Direct Star and others by Vivendi and Canal Plus Group On 23 July 2012, the French Competition Authority (the ’Authority’) issued, in addition to the decision on the acquisition of sole control of (...)

Const. dec. no. 12-DCC-06 of 20 January 2012 on the acquisition of the Vermandoise Group by the cooperative company Cristal Union On 20 January 2012, the Competition Authority authorised the acquisition of the Vermandoise Group by the cooperative company Cristal Union, two companies active in (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-DCC-214 of December 24, 2011 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of Alyzia by G3S On 24 December 2011, the Authority authorised the sale by Aéroports de Paris (ADP) of its subsidiary Alyzia, a provider of ground handling services to airlines and services for (...)

In the middle of August, the Commission published its decision of 23 November 2011 in Case COMP/M.6203 on the acquisition of Viviti Technologies by Western Digital (³cWD³d), Viviti Technologies being the new name of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Holdings Ltd (³cHGST³d), a subsidiary of the (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-DCC-114 of 12 July 2011 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of the l’Est Républicain group by Banque Fédérative du Crédit Mutuel By a decision of 12 July 2011, the French Competition Authority authorised, subject to the implementation of commitments, the (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 11-DCC-87 of June 10, 2011 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control of Media Concorde SNC by High Tech Multicanal Group It will be recalled that on 16 December 2009, the Competition Authority had issued guidelines on merger control. One of the highlights of those (...)

CE Sect, 30 December 2010, Métropole Télévision, No. 338197 By judgment of 30 December 2010, the Conseil d’État dismissed the action for annulment brought by Métropole Télévision against the decision of the French Competition Authority (hereinafter "the Authority") No. 10-DCC-11 of 26 January 2010. (...)

CE Sect, 23 December 2010, Sarl Bric’Oleron, n°338594 and Mr Bricolage n°337533 On 12 January 2010, the Competition Authority authorised, subject to the implementation of commitments, the acquisition of sole control of the Passerelle group by the Mr Bricolage group, both active in the (...)

CE (ord.), 26 May 2010, Sarl Bric’Oléron, No. 338595; against Aut. conc. dec. No. 10-DCC-01 of 12 January 2010 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control by Mr. Bricolage of Passerelle Passerelle CE (ord.), 26 May 2010, Mr Bricolage, No. 338596; against Aut. conc., Dec. No. 10-DCC-01 of 12 (...)

CE (ord.), 22 April 2010, Métropole Télévision, No. 338198; against Aut. conc., Dec. No. 10-DCC-11 of 26 January 2010 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control by the TF1 group of the companies NT1 and Monte-Carlo Participations (AB group) By order of 22 April 2010, the Conseil d’État (...)

Aut. conc. dec. no. 10-DCC-11 of 26 January 2010 relating to the acquisition of exclusive control by the TF1 group of NT1 and Monte-Carlo Participations (AB group) In July 2009, TF1 notified the Competition Authority (hereinafter ’the Authority’) of its proposed acquisition of sole control of (...)

Concording Aut. conc. dec. no. 09-DCC-23 of July 23, 2009 relating to the change of signage of points of sale under the Veti banner to the Kiabi banner The Competition Authority considers that the transaction consisting, for a network of sales outlets operating under the Veti brand, in (...)

Communication from the Commission to the Council, Report on the functioning of Regulation 139/2004, COM(2009)281 final, SEC(2009)808, 18 June 2009 Concerned about the effectiveness of the merger control rules, the Commission questioned the national competition authorities on 26 June 2008 on (...)