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

Search warrants or “authorizations” in no way create a presumption of guilt, and judges are thereafter free to assess the merits of the evidence found  since their sole purpose is to seek alleged offenses in any location and to seize the relevant documents . However, the search warrant is not unlimited in scope.
The warrant is interpreted restrictively and the places and searches authorized under  …

Scope of the warrant

Search warrants or “authorizations” in no way create a presumption of guilt, and judges are thereafter free to assess the merits of the evidence found  since their sole purpose is to seek alleged offenses in any location and to seize the relevant documents . However, the search warrant is not unlimited in scope.

The warrant is interpreted restrictively and the places and searches authorized under it should be listed clearly therein . Should the investigating authorities wish to extend the locations under investigation, they must make further application to the courts .

When simultaneous raids in several places were necessary, the freedoms and detention judge designated by the judge having issued the warrant did not have to re-examine the merits of the case, amend the scope of warrant . In this case, only the principal order authorizing the search and seizure operation was appealable and not the order issued by letter rogatory . These issues should be eliminated as a result of the DDADUE Law  of 3 December 2020, which amends Article L. 450-4 to allow the same freedoms and detention judge to authorize searches and seizures throughout the national territory. The rogatory commission thus becomes optional and the judge having authorized the operations will be able to ensure the supervision of their progress, regardless of the place where the operation is carried out.The case -handler of the Competition Authority's investigation department, mandated by the rapporteur général may request the judge of freedoms and detention to extend the visit and seizure operations to premises not covered by the initial warrant .

However, the warrant does not have to expressly  name all the undertakings domiciled at the address stated on the warrant and which are to be raided , or the nature of the documents coming within the scope of the search . Nonetheless a warrant for the seizure of “all relevant documentation” only allows the seizure of those documents linked to the behavior giving rise to the search . Therefore, the seizure of computer files the description of which is not sufficiently explicit to satisfy the judge that they contain documents related to the warrant must be cancelled .

Cass. com., 20 November 1990, LawLex200200002838JBJ; 5 February 1991, LawLex200200002543JBJ, 23 March LawLex200200003400JBJ.

The capital links between two companies are not sufficient to presume the existence of anticompetitive practices on the part of an undertaking, CA Paris, 22 October 2009, LawLex200900003404JBJ.

Cass. com., 14 January 1992, LawLex200200002313JBJ.

CA Versailles, 19 February 2010, LawLex201000001309JBJ, LawLex201000001268JBJ.

Cass. com., 12 March 1996, LawLex200200002709JBJ; 12 November 1996, LawLex200200002709JBJ; 22 February 2012, LawLex201200000546JBJ, which specifies that only the court who has received a letter rogatory to designate one or more police officers is authorized to rule on the modification of the location of the premises to be visited when they are within its jurisdiction.

Cass. com., 21 March 1989, LawLex200200002710JBJ; 21 January 1997, LawLex200200002288JBJ: on the additional search of cars found in the place where the search was carried out; 4 May 2011, LawLex201100000976JBJ, on the possibility of carrying out inspections at the premises of the company referred on the search warrant as sharing the same premises as the company suspected of anticompetitive practices, with which it is linked by capital ties, and which is likely to hold documents relating to these practices.

CA Paris, 9 November 2010, LawLex201000001257JBJ.

Cass. crim., 23 February 2011, LawLex201100000685JBJ.

Law No 2020-1508 of 3 December 2020  concerning various provisions of adaptation to European Union law (DDADUE) in economic and financial matters.

Cass. com., 22 February 2012, LawLex201200000546JBJ.

Cass. crim., 4 April 2012, LawLex201200000721JBJ; CA Paris, 27 March 2012, LawLex201200000536JBJ; CA Bordeaux, 16 September 2014, LawLex201400000957JBJ; CA Paris, 16 September 2015, LawLex201500001171JBJ; 6 January 2016, LawLex201600000067JBJ. See also. Cass. com. 10 May 2023, LawLex202300006589JBJ and LawLex202300006591JBJ, pointing out that a company which was the operating subsidiary of the company raided at the time of some of the practices covered by the court order, and which occupies premises covered by it, may also be raided as part of the operation, even if the parent company had divested 60% of its capital since the offenses were committed.

Cass. com., 29 October 1991, LawLex200200002700JBJ.

French Competition Law

416. Scope of the warrant

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416. Scope of the warrant

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Les décisions de justice citées dans ce paragraphe :

Les notions juridiques connexes

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