French Competition Law provides a comprehensive review of the French rules relating to competition: restrictive agreements, commercial negotiation, abuses of a dominant position, procedure and merger control.

French Competition Law

Any economic entity can be described as an undertaking if it operates autonomously on a market  and if its activity is likely to produce effects on that market. An undertaking can therefore be defined in the negative sense, as the smallest legal unit of which the constituent parts are not autonomous from each other, and within which competition law does not apply. A group of companies may constitu …

Autonomous economic entity

Any economic entity can be described as an undertaking if it operates autonomously on a market  and if its activity is likely to produce effects on that market. An undertaking can therefore be defined in the negative sense, as the smallest legal unit of which the constituent parts are not autonomous from each other, and within which competition law does not apply. A group of companies may constitute a single undertaking . A natural person is considered to be an undertaking and is subject to competition law  if he or she operates on a market.

The legal nature of the perpetrator of the anticompetitive practice (natural person, legal entity under private or public law, unincorporated body ) does not determine the status of the undertaking. As Article L. 410-1 of the Commercial Code now provides : “the rules defined in this book shall apply to undertakings deemed to  be entities, regardless of their legal form and method of financing,  which carry out production, distribution and service activities,  including those carried out by public bodies, in particular under public  service delegation agreements”. The only considerations are economic  activity and decision-making autonomy.

Whether or not an entity is subject to competition law does not depend on whether it is a supplier on the market. It is sufficient that the behavior of the economic entity in question is likely to have an anticompetitive effect. For example, an association  may be party to a restrictive agreement if its reputation and the simplicity of the price lists it distributes encourage contractors operating on the reference market to apply the rates it has drawn up . An agent is an undertaking subject to restrictive agreement law if it carries on an independent activity and does not form an economic unit with its principal . An undertaking which subcontracts 77% to 80% of its sales to the participants in a restrictive agreement may nevertheless be held liable for the infringement if it competes with them for the rest of its business .

Finally, the fact that an operator belongs to a sector subject to specific regulations does not exclude the application of competition law. This is the case for press undertakings. The principle of freedom of the press enshrined in the Law of 29 July 1881 does not prevent the application of Articles L. 420-1 and L. 420-2 of the Commercial Code to a concerted refusal to advertise .

See CA Paris, 18 March 1993, LawLex200200002006JBJ, modifying the decision of the Competition Council No 92-D-35 of 13 May 1992, LawLex200200003180JBJ, overturned by Cass. com., 12 December 1995, LawLex200200003346JBJ, on the management of central administrative department.

Competition Council decision No 98-D-76 of 9 December 1998, LawLex200200002472JBJ; No 00-D-80 of 31 January 2001, LawLex200200002688JBJ.

Competition Council decision No 95-D-86 du 19 December 1995, LawLex200002860JBJ; No 91-D-43 du 22 October 1991, LawLex200002892JBJ; Competition Authority decision No 19-D-19 of 30 September 2019, LawLex201900001155JBJ, for architects in their capacity as project managers. Contra: CA Paris, 3 May 1990, LawLex200200003046JBJ, distinguishing between undertakings and other legal or natural persons covered by competition law.

See for the services of a central administrative agency, in this case national meteorological services, Cass. com, 12 December 1995, LawLex200200003346JBJ.

Version resulting from Ordinance No 2021-649 of 26 May 2021, which transposes the ECN+ Directive.

CA Paris, 7 May 2025, LawLex202500003892JBJ, holding that the economic nature of an activity does not depend on its profitability, so that a sports association may be classified as an undertaking within the meaning of Articles L. 410-1 of the Commercial Code and 101 TFEU, regardless of its poor results.

CA Paris, 8 February 2000, LawLex200200002844JBJ.

Competition Council decision No 06-D-18 of 18 June 2006, LawLex200600001590JBJ, classifying an advertising network as an independent undertaking, since it bears a significant proportion of the financial risks and is free to determine its own commercial strategy.

CA Paris, 19 July 2018, LawLex201800001111JBJ.

Competition Council decision No 92-D-43 of 30 June 1992, LawLex200200002881JBJ.

French Competition Law

239. Autonomous economic entity

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239. Autonomous economic entity

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

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