France

On December 9, 2021, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) imposed a €100,000 fine on Mayotte Channel Gateway (“MCG”), the manager and operator of the Longoni port in Mayotte, together with its parent company, Société Nel Import Export, for refusal to comply with an FCA request for information. 

In a ruling dated December 2, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeals overturned a 2010 decision in which the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) had fined 11 major French banks for colluding on check handling fees, possibly bringing the 11-year saga to an end.  The ruling confirms that the concept of by-object restriction should be interpreted restrictively, in line with a judgment issued by the French Cour de cassation in the same case in 2020.

On November 24, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeals overruled the Paris Commercial Court’s dismissal of the follow-on damage claim brought by two supermarket chains in the dairy products case.[1] The Court of Appeals considered that the applicants had sufficiently substantiated the economic assessment of their harm. It also considered that they had only partially passed on the additional costs and therefore could claim damages for the costs that had not been passed on to consumers.

In a judgment dated October 19, 2021, the Cour de cassation quashed a Paris Court of Appeal’s judgment invalidating inspections carried out by the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) at Swarovski France’s (“Swarovski”) headquarters in July 2019.[1] The judgment is in line with recent Cour de cassation rulings favorable to the FCA.

October 13, 2021 marked the end of Isabelle de Silva’s five-year term as President of the FCA.

On September 30, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeals upheld the FCA’s decision of April 24, 2020 (the “Decision”) to dismiss Molotov’s complaint regarding certain practices allegedly carried out by the two main private free-to-air television broadcasters in France, TF1 and M6. The Court held that, in line with the FCA’s findings, neither the evidence on file nor that adduced by the complainant were sufficient to establish any of the alleged infringements.

On September 22, 2021, the General Court dismissed Altice’s appeal against two fines totalling €124.5 million imposed by the Commission in 2018 (the “Decision”)[1] for exercising control over PT Portugal before the acquisition had received merger control clearance, i.e., gun-jumping.

On September 22, 2021, the Cour de cassation upheld the 2018 judgement of the Paris Court of Appeals[1] which had confirmed the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”)’s infringement findings nonetheless reducing the amount of the financial penalties imposed on 21 companies in 2015.[2] This ruling closes a 13-year saga and provides a deep-dive analysis into the FCA’s fine calculation methodology.