Global Competition Law is primarly a practitioner's guide presenting the most salient aspects of the major competition laws country by country, giving an overview of their structure and most charasteristic elements.
Global Competition Law also provides insight into possible future developments in the field.

Global Competition Law

French law is applicable throughout the French territory and to activities of foreign undertakings that have an anticompetitive effect on the French market. Restrictive agreements are prohibited even if made directly or indirectly via a company, belonging to a group, which is established abroad. On the other hand, anticompetitive practices relative to exports do not fall within the scope of applic …

Scope

French competition law is governed by Book IV of the Commercial Code (CC), entitled “Pricing freedom and competition”, codified by Ordinance No 2000-912 of 18 September 2000, which repealed Ordinance of 1 December 1986 on pricing freedom and competition. Title II deals with anticompetitive practices, Title III with merger control and Title IV with price transparency and restrictive practices. Title IV has been reformed by Ordinance No 2019-359 of 24 April 2019 recasting Title IV of Book IV of the Commercial Code on transparency, restrictive practices and other prohibited practices. The prohibition against restrictive practices in the Commercial Code (CC) is to be distinguished from actions against unfair competition based on Article 1240 of the Civil Code. In 2001, competition law was completely overhauled by the NRE Law (Nouvelles Régulations Économiques [new economic regulations])which sought to step up the fight against anticompetitive and unfair practices - in particular through a major increase of the amount of fines and the implementation of a leniency program for “repenting” undertakings - and to reinforce the control of concentrations by the introduction of an obligation of prior notification and a two-speed procedure according to the complexity of the case. The rules on restrictive practices have been regularly revised, first by the Dutreil Law of 2 August 2005, and then the Chatel Law of 3 January 2008, which while attempting to promote free competition, has tied up commercial negotiations in formality. A further general reform of competition law was through the adoption of the law on the modernization of the economy of 4 August 2008, finalized by the Ordinance of 13 November 2008 which, inter alia, repealed the per se prohibition of discriminatory practices and transformed the Competition Council into the Competition Authority (Autorité de la concurrence) with additional powers.

The following competition acts, the so-called Hamon Law of 17 March 2014, Macron Law of 6 August 2015 and the Sapin II Law of 9 December 2016 do not bring any major changes to the competition rules although they do make some significant modifications of the rules in the area of restrictive practices and price transparency, clearly reflecting a shift in policy. In particular, where earlier reforms were concerned with the liberalization of relations between suppliers and distributors, the Hamon law has tightened up the rules on commercial negotiation by subjecting undertakings to restrictive formal requirements, giving back the Directorate for competition (DGCCRF) increased enforcement powers that it had lost under the Ordinance of 1986 and - the flagship provision - introducing class action suits into French law. Subsequently, an Ordinance and a Decree both dated 9 March 2017 transposed into national law the provisions of EU Directive No 2014/104 on damages actions for competition law infringements, the provision of which were included in the Commercial Code. Lastly, the EGalim Law of 30 March 2023 pursued the French legislator's attempt to rationalize the presentation and enforcement of the provisions relating to price transparency and restrictive practices. 

Context

French law is applicable throughout the French territory and to activities of foreign undertakings that have an anticompetitive effect on the French market. Restrictive agreements are prohibited even if made directly or indirectly via a company, belonging to a group, which is established abroad. On the other hand, anticompetitive practices relative to exports do not fall within the scope of application of Article L. 420-1, except if the actual or potential effect of the anticompetitive behavior, even in respect of exports, is to compromise the profitability and durability of the activity of businesses on the national territory. French law is broad in its scope, since it applies to “undertakings understood as entities, regardless of their legal form and method of financing, which carry out production, distribution and service activities, including those carried out by public entities, especially within the framework of public utility concession agreements.” (Article L. 410-1 CC).

  Specific economic sectors are regulated by special authorities such as the Telecommunications and Posts Regulatory Authority (Arcep), the Audiovisual Council (CSA), the Commission for the Regulation of Energy (CRE), which must initiate proceedings before the Competition Authority for matters of abuse of dominant position and anticompetitive practices that they are aware of in their respective sectors. For its part, the Competition Authority will solicit the (non-binding) opinion of the Arcep or the CSA when applying the competition rules to the sectors concerned.

Global Competition Law

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Les notions juridiques connexes

266. Scope

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Les notions juridiques connexes

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