On February 6, 2024, the French Competition Authority ("l'Autorité") fined chocolate producer De Neuville 4 million euros for vertical agreements. This decision is interesting in several respects...more
5/23/2024
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) ,
Corporate Branding ,
Corporate Fines ,
Distributors ,
France ,
Franchises ,
Franchisors ,
French Competition Authority ,
Operating Agreements ,
Vertical Agreement
On 27 February 2024, the Nîmes Court of Appeal confirmed that an employee may be dismissed for serious misconduct for participating in an anti-competitive cartel.
While the risk of companies being penalised for...more
On 18 October 2023, the Commercial Division of the French Supreme Court (Court of Cassation) issued a noteworthy ruling, in which it judged its own case law on restrictive competition practices to be "complex", a source of...more
2/15/2024
/ CNIL ,
Commercial Court ,
Competition ,
Consent ,
Contract Disputes ,
Data Processors ,
Data Protection Authority ,
Distributors ,
Email ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Exclusive Jurisdiction ,
France ,
French Commercial Code ,
French Competition Authority ,
French Supreme Court ,
Internet Retailers ,
Jurisdiction ,
Online Platforms ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Terms and Conditions ,
Unsolicited Advertisements
In an important judgment handed down on 29 June 2023 (Case C-211/22), the Court of Justice of the European Union (the "CJEU") ruled that a vertical agreement to fix minimum prices does not necessarily constitute a restriction...more
10/25/2023
/ Advertising ,
Anti-Competitive ,
CNIL ,
Competition ,
Compliance ,
Criminal Liability ,
Data Controller ,
EU ,
Financial Services Industry ,
France ,
French Competition Authority ,
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) ,
International Labor Laws ,
Targeted Digital Advertising ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
White Collar Crimes
Dawn raids: the First President of the Paris Court of Appeal orders the destruction and return of mailboxes delivered by a company, whose premises had been searched, after the closure of the dawn raids.
On April 5, 2023,...more
The following articles present a brief summary of topics of interest specific to French law which apply to French and foreign companies in the food, beverage and agriculture sector, when products are marketed in France....more
On March 9, the European Commission adopted a series of measures to foster investment and financing the transition to climate neutrality and a net-zero industry in the EU.
To this end, the Commission has...more
4/17/2023
/ Energy Sector ,
Environmental Policies ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Economic Area (EEA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Member State ,
Net Zero ,
Project Finance ,
Renewable Energy ,
Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) ,
Startups
Welcome to the first edition of the Litigation Gazette. Each quarter, BCLP's Paris team keep you informed of the main litigation news in competition law, commercial litigation, labor law, IP/IT/Data and compliance.
In this...more
Distribution: In two rulings issued on 28 September 2022, the French Supreme Court clarified the conditions under which suppliers can be held liable for failure to comply with their duty to communicate -
Article L.441-1...more
The Digital Markets Act (DMA), introduces stricter rules for ‘big tech’ in the EU and comes into force today, November 1 2022. The DMA forms part of the European Commission’s new package of legislation governing conduct in...more
On the 13 July 2022, the General Court upheld the European Commission’s decision to accept a referral from Member States under Article 22 of the EU Regulation n°139/2004 on merger control (“EUMR”) to review a deal that fell...more
The Egalim 2 law, which aims to improve farmers' income by maximizing the transparency of trade relations, came into force on October 18, 2021. Eight months later, its implementation is still largely imperfect, for reasons...more
6/9/2022
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Commodities ,
EU ,
Farmers ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Foreign Suppliers ,
Suppliers ,
Trade Relations ,
Transparency ,
Ukraine ,
Upstream Contracts
On May 10 2022, the EU Commission adopted the new Vertical Block Exemption Regulation and Vertical Guidelines. The regulation includes several significant new developments including readjusting the safe harbour and providing...more
5/13/2022
/ Competition ,
Contract Terms ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Exclusivity ,
Exclusivity Clauses ,
Member State ,
Non-Compete Agreements ,
Safe Harbors ,
Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) ,
V-BER (Vertical Block Exemption Regulation) ,
Vertical Agreement
The European Commission (“EC”) is consulting on new rules for collaborations between competitors by inviting comments on two draft Horizontal Block Exemption Regulations on Specialisation and R&D (“HBERs”) and accompanying...more
The Paris Court has ruled against Sanofi in the Depakine case on the class action initiated by an association. According to a parliamentary report dated 11 June 2020, only twenty-one class actions have been brought to court...more
This newsletter focuses on two recent legal updates in the agri-food sector:
..The Egalim 2 Law, adopted on 19 October 2021, is aimed to grant guaranties to the French food sector. More specifically, this law intends to...more
12/15/2021
/ Agricultural Sector ,
Distributors ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
Food Manufacturers ,
Food Supply ,
France ,
New Legislation ,
Remuneration ,
Sales & Distribution Agreements ,
Supply Chain ,
Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER)
Antitrust: The French Competition Authority revises its procedural notice on fines, substantially amending the method for determining fines and exposing companies to significant and increased financial risks.
On 30 July...more
Merger control - Infrastructure: For the first time, the French Competition Authority blocked a concentration in the infrastructure sector. The Authority ruled that the acquisition of exclusive control of the Pipeline...more
Order No. 2021-649 of May 26, 2021 (the "Order") finalizes the transposition into French law of the European Directive so-called "ECN +" of December 11, 2018, which aims to strengthen the powers of national competition...more
Welcome to this first edition of BCLP’S Competition Collective: Antitrust, Foreign Investment and Trade Insights from around the world. This period was marked by uncertainty – and the harsh realities of the pandemic for many...more
5/27/2021
/ Acquisitions ,
Antitrust Investigations ,
Antitrust Provisions ,
Biden Administration ,
Cartels ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Digital Services ,
Enforcement Actions ,
EU ,
Health Care Providers ,
Healthcare Facilities ,
Merger Controls ,
Mergers ,
Sports ,
Technology Sector ,
Trade Agreements ,
UK ,
UK Brexit ,
UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)
The Competition and Distribution team of BCLP's Paris office reviews some key news from the end of 2020, in particular:
..The “Dammann Frères” decision of 3 December 2020 concerning the tea manufacturer's online sales...more
2/2/2021
/ Anti-Competitive ,
Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Competition Authorities ,
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ,
Distributors ,
EU ,
France ,
French Competition Authority ,
French Supreme Court ,
Online Marketplace ,
Price-Fixing ,
Vertical Agreement
This Newsletter of the Competition and Distribution team of BCLP's Paris office features some of the key developments of the last quarter. In this newsletter:
..To enable national authorities to better apprehend killer...more
12/3/2020
/ Acquisitions ,
Competition ,
Competition Authorities ,
EU ,
European Commission ,
European Merger Control Regulation ,
France ,
French Competition Authority ,
Member State ,
Mergers ,
Netherlands
Summer 2020 was characterized by two significant news items: one in the area of merger control and the other in the area of restrictive practices.
..On 28 August 2020, the French Competition Authority prohibited a merger...more
On July 23, 2020, the French Competition Authority (the "Authority") published its new guidelines on merger control (the "Guidelines"), after more than two years of consultations and discussions. These Guidelines, which...more