Cassandre Lécuyer

In a 350-page decision dated  December 29, 2023, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) sanctioned four professional associations and eleven undertakings, in their capacity as members of these associations, for having implemented a collective strategy to prevent market players from competing on the presence or absence of Bisphenol A (“BPA”) in food containers (the “Decision”). [1] The total fine amounts to €19,543,400.

In a decision dated September 26, 2023, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) imposed a €750,000 penalty on the French tobacco shops trade union, the Confédération Nationale des Buralistes de France (“CNBF”),for boycotting practices (the “Decision”).[1]  The FCA found that the trade union had sought to exclude rivals from the distribution of gambling games issued by La Française des Jeux (“FDJ”), the state-owned company responsible for operating the national lottery in France.

In a ruling dated June 28, 2023, the Cour de cassation[1] upheld the Paris Court of Appeals’ judgment which had reversed the 2010 decision of the French Competition Authority fining 11 banks for an anticompetitive pricing agreement in relation to check processing.  The Cour de cassation ruled that the FCA had improperly qualified the agreement as a “by object” infringement when no sufficient degree of harmfulness to competition was proven.  This ruling puts an end to a 13-year old judicial saga.

On March 23, 2023, the French Cour de cassation ruled that requests to restrict the French Competition Authority’s (“FCA”) communication actions relating to a fining decision qualify as applications for interim relief under Article L.464-8 of the French Commercial Code and therefore can validly be brought before the Paris Court of Appeals.[1]