PresentationsOpening Remarks
Franck Gentin
The commercial judge is the natural judge of private competition disputes. In matters of private actions, his decisions are important and likely to modify the behaviour of economic agents. His role complements that of the Authority, whose decisions are now taken into account by companies that have adapted to the rules it has imposed in economic life.
The commercial judge has two ongoing concerns: the issue of proof and the issue of quantum. With regard to the taking of evidence, there is increasingly widespread recourse to the provisions offered by Article 145 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The practice of the Commercial Court of Paris is to ensure the adversarial nature of the procedure: the documents held in custody on request are thus made available to the claimant only after an adversarial debate between the parties. In matters of quantum, the judge is as concerned about the risk of under- or over-condemnation as he is about the risk of over-condemnation. The speakers who will speak on the subject of quantification of damages are therefore eagerly awaited.