National and European competition law directly concerns any business set up in France, whatever its legal form, size, sector of activity or area of influence. In recent years, regulation in this area has increased significantly: 

• Growth of national concentration control regulations, reforms of control exercised by the EU authorities 
• Increase in proceedings for collusion and abuse of dominant market position, due to increased activity from the European Competition Network authorities and the development of leniency programmes 
• Marked increase in the magnitude of sanctions and growth in civil actions for damages against those responsible for anti-competitive practices.

Our practice areas

• Concentration notifications to the national or international authorities
• Assistance to businesses implicated in procedures undertaken by the national or European authorities (requests for information, on-the-spot investigations and searches, notification of grievances, negotiated procedures of non-contestation or leniency)
• Filing of claims and proceedings in the case of anti-competitive practices (collusion and abuse of dominant position)
• Advice on opening up public enterprise to competition, particularly in sectors facing deregulation (telecoms, energy, transport, postal services) ? Follow-up on pending cases before national institutions (competition law, requests for opinion) or EU institutions (competition law, state aid)
• Assistance implementing compliance programmes regarding matters of competition
• Advice on matters of public competition law (SGEIs, monopolies, cross-subsidies, state aid, replies to requests for tender, etc.)
• Legal aspects of distribution – choice of distribution systems and networks, verification of their conformity with competition law 
• Advice on restrictive practices, particularly in the context of industrial/commercial relations (product listings, commercial cooperation agreements, discriminatory practices, payment terms).

Our approach

• An overall understanding of the interests of our clients, for whom we build tailor-made and innovative solutions: more than just experts, we treat the questions raised from a strategic point of view on top of a comprehensive evaluation of the client’s situation and priorities 
• The capability to take on complex cases with multilingual lawyers who have a complete understanding of the concepts which arise not only in relation to competition law, but European and public law as well
• Practice groups with access to other areas of expertise which exist within CMS Bureau Francis Lefebvre, as much legal as fiscal, guaranteeing a pluridisciplinary approach

• Methodological rigour: anticipating the problems at the root of disputes and supporting proceedings brought by or against our clients through their various phases.

Our clients

Large international groups as well as SMEs and professional organisations and partnerships put their faith in us, in sectors as varied as consumer goods, the agro-alimentary industry, telecoms, energy and the healthcare product industry for example.

Our team

There are 12 lawyers in our team. The diversity of their experience and careers is a guarantee of experience, flexibility and dynamism. In the context of CMS, regular meetings take place between lawyers specialising in the competition law of European countries and the rest of the world, which allows us to offer our clients integrated cross-border services.