TRENDS : FRENCH COMPETITION AUTHORITY - NEW POWER – STRUCTURAL INJUNCTIONS
Structural remedies: A unique antitrust tool
The French Competition Authority has been given a new power by the legislator: it can order structural injunctions when the price conditions charged by a dominant undertaking are unusually high on the French overseas territories. Clearly, this legal instrument is sui generis in France. It is so too at the European Union level and in the UK where a comparable instrument already exists. This Trends invites a reflexion on this exceptional instrument.
Introduction
David BOSCO
Professeur, Université d’Aix-Marseille (EA 4224)
1. The origin of this Trend should be explained to the non-French-speaking readers of Concurrences. In 2012, the French Competition Authority issued an opinion in which it analysed the situation of competition in the food retailing sector in Paris [1]. The French authority indicated that a measure was missing in its tool-box to act effectively when the identified competition problems result from the market structures. Specifically, it appeared that the food distribution market in Paris was highly concentrated. Thanks to its own merits and to the indifference of its competitors towards the food retailing market in Paris intra-muros, the Casino group had come to hold a dominant position. But as Casino held a wide
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