Antitrust settlements- The EU and French procedures

Emmanuel Reille

At a time when the new settlement procedure is coming into force before the Competition Authority, we thought it would be interesting to take stock and compare it with the practice and experience of the European Commission. The French-style settlement was introduced by the Macron Act in Article L. 464-2 III of the French Commercial Code, replacing the procedure for non-contestation of grievances resulting from the NRE Act of 2001, which is unique in Europe. It had been working rather well since at least 2008, representing between one case in two and one case in three handled by the Authority. We will deal successively with the issues raised by the three phases of the procedure: the initial exploratory phase (1), the procedure and the settlement decision itself (2), and the hypotheses of settlement failures (3).

The exploratory phase

The Commercial Code and Regulation 622/2008 leave a great deal of latitude and recall that the transaction is a simple possibility for the authorities. Which companies are eligible? What types of business lend themselves best to this procedure?