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

Vertical agreements that aim at fixing selling prices  or imposing discriminatory conditions  are contrary to Article L. 420-1. But provisions governing general terms of sale and commercial cooperation agreements are not always completely clear.

In this area, the Competition Authority must reconcile two different approaches - one belonging to price transparency law, and the other to anticompetitive practices. Transparency rules require all general terms be communicated and all applicable discounts on the day of sale or service figure on the invoice. These rules attempt to prevent any discrimination. Commercial cooperation agreements can only be entered into in consideration of specific services. In competition law, discriminatory conditions granted to the benefit of certain trading partners that increase economic efficiency or compensate better customer service are not anticompetitive. They will only be characterized otherwise if the secrecy of the agreement provides the means for suppliers to prevent discounts or rebates from affecting distributor resale prices as well as to avoid the demands of distributors who do not benefit from the discounts. In this respect, commercial cooperation agreements or specific terms of sale may contribute to resale price maintenance and are thereby contrary to Article L. 420-1. However, the competition authorities tend to rule against agreements that don't satisfy the requirements of laws on transparency (confidential compensation, advantages for turnover increases) on antitrust grounds, and to absolve those that appear to comply with such rules (compensation for a specific service) .

Competition Council decision No 02-D-56 of 17 September 2002, LawLex200200002133JBJ; No 02-D-42 of 28 June 2002, LawLex200200002172JBJ; CA Paris, 18 September 2001, LawLex200200003426JBJ; 11 September 2001, LawLex200200003423JBJ; Competition Council decision No 00-D-85 of 20 March 2001, LawLex200200002388JBJ; No 00-D-75 of 6 February 2001, LawLex200200002678JBJ; No 00-D-66 of 7 January 2001, LawLex200200002701JBJ; No 96-D-60 of 15 October 1996, LawLex200200003145JBJ; No 95-D-62 of 26 September 1995, LawLex200200002303JBJ; CA Paris, 23 May 1995, LawLex200200002319JBJ; No 93-D-50 of 23 November 1993, LawLex200200002651JBJ; No 89-D-41 of 28 November 1989, LawLex200200003244JBJ.

Cass. com., 5 November 1991, LawLex200200002859JBJ; CA Paris, 17 January 1990, LawLex200200003113JBJ; Competition Council decision No 89-D-29 of 4 July 1989, LawLex200200003338JBJ.

See esp. Competition Council decision No 94-D-60 of 13 December 1994, LawLex200200003339JBJ.

308. Conditions for prohibition