Agreements on prices and rebates: The French Competition Council clarifies the conditions of sanction in case of meetings between competitors (Heating Appliances)

– Conc. conc. dec. 06-D-03 bis of 9 March 2006 on practices implemented in the heating, sanitary, plumbing, air conditioning sector Press release of 9 March 2006 After a very long 360-page decision (!), the Council has sanctioned a series of horizontal and vertical agreements implemented by 70 specialist companies and 7 professional federations in the heating, sanitary, plumbing and air-conditioning sector. In view of the length of this decision and the large number of objections notified (16 in all), this commentary can only be selective. It will focus mainly on the Board's understanding of meetings between competitors. The treatment of meetings between competitors It is well known that Community case law is very strict with regard to meetings between competitors. Since a 1999 Anic