Cartels

On January 28, 2025, the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice issued a much-awaited preliminary ruling that clarifies when national laws that prohibit the transfer of antitrust compensation claims to bring a collective action breach EU law.[1]  The Court of Justice held that, to respect the principle of effectiveness, national procedural rules cannot limit recourse to such group actions where it is the only procedural way for individuals to bring a claim for compensation.  While it is clear that the Court of Justice did not consider Member States are under an obligation to always allow for group action lawsuits, the implications for private enforcement are yet unclear.  This will likely be the subject of additional litigation and preliminary rulings.

On December 4, 2024, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) sanctioned two airlines, Air Antilles and Air Caraïbes, and one specialised consultant for having implemented a strategy to increase prices and coordinate offers and conditions in the Caribbean inter-island aviation transport sector (the “Decision”).[1]  The FCA imposed total fines of €14.57 million, concluding a five-year old investigation.[2]

On October 29, 2024, the French Competition Authority (“FCA”) imposed a fine totalling €470 million on manufacturers and distributors of low-voltage electrical equipment (the “Decision”) for vertical resale price fixing.[1]  The FCA sanctioned two vertical price agreements (i) between Schneider Electric and its distributors Rexel and Sonepar implemented from December 2012 to September 2018, and (ii) between Legrand and its distributor Rexel from May 2012 and September 2015.

On October 4, 2024, following two annulments,[1] the Court of Justice confirmed the Commission’s second readoption of its decision to fine Italian manufacturers of reinforcing steel bars for a price-fixing cartel.  While dismissing all other pleas, the Court of Justice found that the Commission had breached the principle of equal treatment by granting two manufacturers different fine discounts per year of their non-participation in the cartel.[2]  To rectify the unequal treatment, the Court of Justice reduced Ferriere Nord’s fine from €2,237,000 to €2,165,000.

On May 21, 2024, the French Competition Authority (the “FCA”) fined 11 companies active in the pre-cast concrete sector for having exchanged commercially sensitive information and implemented anticompetitive price fixing, customer allocation and bid rigging practices over seven to ten years (from 2008 or 2011 to 2017 or 2018 depending on the practices).[1]  These practices were uncovered in the context of a criminal investigation carried out under the supervision of a criminal investigating judge (juge d’instruction).  Fines ranged from €150,000 to €25.5 million, amounting to a total of approx. €76.6 million.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) declared victory as the High Court confirmed the standard of evidence needed to secure warrants to search domestic premises.  The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) had refused to grant a domestic search warrant to the CMA in connection with a cartel investigation.  It held in a judgment of October 2023 (the CAT Judgment) that a “higher order of scrutiny” [1] was required for domestic warrants than for business premises warrants, in order to protect individuals’ rights to a private and family life under Art. 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

On March 7, 2024, the Paris Court of Appeal (the “Court”) partially overturned[1] a 2020 decision of the French Competition Authority (“FCA”)[2] sanctioning 12 companies for their participation in a cartel in the ham and cold meat sector (the “Decision”).  While the Court confirmed the existence of cartel-related practices, it dropped some charges and reduced the parameters taken into account by the FCA to calculate the fine.  As a result, the total fine amount was reduced from €93 million to €39 million.