The Public Competition Enforcement Review: France

Written by Olivier Billard and Igor Simic

Published on The Public Competition Enforcement Review

The French Competition Authority (FCA) is the administrative body in charge of enforcing EU and domestic competition rules in France. In 2022, it issued 26 contentious decisions, of which 13 imposed fines amounting to an aggregate of €470 million. This total shows a significant decrease compared with 2021 (€870 million) and previous years (€1.8 billion in 2020, €630 million in 2019); therefore 2020 qualifies as a record year in terms of sanctions. Of the 13 decisions imposing fines in the past year:

• five sanctioned cartels and anticompetitive agreements, under Article L.420-1 of the French Code of Commerce or Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU);
• six sanctioned abuses of a dominant position, under Article L.420-2 of the French Code of Commerce and Article 102 of the TFEU;
• one sanctioned gun-jumping, under Article L.430-8 of the French Code of Commerce; and
• one sanctioned non-compliance with injunctions and cleared penalty payments, under Article L.430-8 of the French Code of Commerce.

As to merger control measures, the FCA issued 257 decisions in 2022, which included 252 decisions clearing the notified transaction and five decisions authorising the notified transaction subject to compliance with commitments. Read more