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

Traditionally under European law, no restriction of competition can be considered to occur on a market on which all competition has already been totally eliminated independently of the actions of the participants in the restrictive agreement. This is the case where the play of competition is prevented due to the effects of State intervention. The Competition Council, endorsing this principle, applied it in the case of a controlled market thus subjecting public insurance registered doctors to the competition rules even though they are not able to act as commercial operators free to set their own rates, insofar as genuine competition exists, as it does in all regulated sectors, in respect of the quality of the service provided . The Paris Court of Appeal  and subsequently the Court of Cassation  have on the contrary held that price regulation excludes all possibility of competition. Thus the concerted practice by public insurance registered doctors of exceeding the rates imposed or regulated by ministerial decree is not subject to L. 420-1 of the Commercial Code.

Competition Council decision No 08-D-06 of 2 April 2008, LawLex200800000357JBJ.

CA Paris, 18 March 2009, LawLex200900001076JBJ.

Cass. com., 7 April 2010, LawLex201000000429JBJ.

265. Competition capable of being restricted