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 purpose of the investigation is to seek evidence. The various documents collected over the course of the investigation will, in the vast majority of cases, make up the elements that the Competition Authority will use in order to establish anticompetitive behavior. However, the Authority considers that it may rely on any objective element and evaluate its probative value . 
Documents that are i …

Establishment of proof

The purpose of the investigation is to seek evidence. The various documents collected over the course of the investigation will, in the vast majority of cases, make up the elements that the Competition Authority will use in order to establish anticompetitive behavior. However, the Authority considers that it may rely on any objective element and evaluate its probative value . 

Documents that are in themselves sufficient for establishing an anticompetitive practice may be used . Other methods of establishing proof may be used as evidence such as  a judicial commissioner's report annexed to a criminal complaint .The Authority may also refer to a range of precise, serious, and corroborating factors . Proof therefore results from the concordance of the various elements, regardless of the value of each taken in isolation. The requirement of consistent evidence precludes the use of testimonies of uncertain probative value due to their contradictory nature .

Report for 1999, 30, LawLex200200000034JBA.

Competition Council decision No 98-D-26 of 7 April 1998, LawLex200200003135JBJ; No 98-D-30 of 6 May 1998, LawLex200200006355JBJ, on a properly seized document; No 98-D-23 of 24 March 1998, LawLex200200002905JBJ, a fax constitutes sufficient proof; CA Paris, 4 February 2003, LawLex200300001167JBJ, stressing that proof of an exchange of information may be provided by the unilateral dispatch of price lists in the presence of other evidence, such as handwritten entries in an employee's diary or the dispatch of a fax containing pricing information. Cf. Cass. crim., 19 January 2000, LawLex200200002921JBJ, letters exchanged with the Administration, diligent investigation by police officers; CA Paris, 13 January 1998, LawLex200200002772JBJ, overturning Competition Council decision No 97-D-41 of 25 February 1997, LawLex200200003149JBJ. 

Competition Council decision No 98-MC-08 of 8 September 1998, LawLex200200003072JBJ. The secret recording of a telephone conversation by a party which had been allowed by the Council (Competition Council decision No 05-D-66 of 5 December 2005, LawLex200500010286JBJ) and the Court of Appeal (CA Paris, 19 June 2007, LawLex200700000868JBJ) is now considered by the Court of Cassation as an unfair method of obtaining evidence rendering it inadmissible (Cass. com., 3 June 2008, LawLex200800000961JBJ and Cass. ass. plén., 7 January 2011, LawLex201100000031JBJ).

Competition Council decision No 00-D-28 of 19 September 2000, LawLex200200002862JBJ; CA Paris, 5 December 2000, LawLex200200002295JBJ, 11 April 2001, a collection of factors resulting from the circumstances and conditions of the market partitioning agreement.

CA Paris, 7 May 2002, LawLex200200002183JBJ.

French Competition Law

389. Establishment of proof

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

389. Establishment of proof

Demandez un accès gratuit au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise

Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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au contenu exclusif Livv – juristes d’entreprise