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

In competition law, horizontal restraints generally derive from horizontal agreements and practices implemented by undertakings operating at the same level of the economic process, i.e. agreements between competitors. As such, these agreements contain the seeds of an anticompetitive cartel insofar as they may harm competition due to their object alone where they involve elements such as price or quantity. For this reason they are subject to stricter review by competition authorities than vertical agreements, which are usually made between non-competing undertakings and therefore are presumably not anticompetitive. The seriousness of the breach of competition rules varies according to the agreement at stake. Price agreements are particularly serious, while information exchanges may be favorably viewed under certain circumstances. Finally, cooperation agreements are often a means for stimulating competition, to the extent that they set up integrated structures such that their participants may penetrate or remain in the market. They benefit from two EU block exemptions , which define exemptable agreements by reference to a minimum market share threshold, and determine what restrictions cannot be exempted. These regulations are accompanied by Guidelines  that should allow companies to assess whether their agreements are valid where they do not come under block exemption regulations. National authorities are responsible for applying these regulations, which may be directly relied upon in cases brought before them, insofar as the agreements have an effect on intra-Union trade. When the effect is limited to national territory, EU regulations and guidelines only serve as a frame for analysis .

Article L. 420-1 establishes a non-exhaustive list of agreements or practices that may act as a restraint on competition. The main varieties targeted are pricing, market allocation, and production agreements. Case-law has filled in this list over time.

Reg. 1217/2010 of 14 December 2010 on R&D agreements and Reg. 1218/2010 of the same day on specialization agreements.

Commission Notice 2011/C 11/01 on horizontal cooperation agreements.

Compare esp. Competition Council decision No 02-D-36 of 14 June 2002, LawLex200200002181JBJ, on vertical restraints.

283. Concept