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

The concept of abuse of dominance covers three rather diverse kinds of offense: abuse of a dominant position (Article L. 420-2(1)), abuse of economic dependence (L. 420-2(2)), and abusively low pricing (L. 420-5). A dominant position is examined by reference to a specific market, while economic dependence is assessed with respect to inter-business relations. As with restrictive agreements, the law provides for exemptions, but in practice these are almost never granted . Finally, neither dominance nor dependency need be demonstrated for a finding of abusively low pricing, but only that the perpetrator holds sufficient market power to eliminate another undertaking or prevent it from gaining market access.

Commercial Code L. 420-4; this can be compared with the EU law on dominant positions where no provision for exemption is made.

340. Abuse of a dominant position, abuse of economic dependence, and abusively low pricing