For concentrations meeting the conditions set forth in Article
L. 430-2 of the French Commercial Code, a notification to the
French Competition Authority (Autorité de la
concurrence) is mandatory. To facilitate merger control
procedures, an online pre-notification and notification procedure
for concentrations that are eligible for the simplified procedure
is available on the internet site of the Competition Authority as
of Oct. 18, 2019.
The online procedure may be used for concentrations in the food or
automobile distribution sectors and, more generally, where the
transaction does not result in any horizontal overlap (i.e., none
of the parties is engaged in business activities in the same
relevant market) or any vertical overlap (i.e., none of the parties
is engaged in a market which is upstream or downstream of a market
in which another party is engaged), and where there is no effect on
a related market (i.e., none of the parties is present in a product
market, which is a neighboring market closely related to a product
market in which any other party is engaged).
The online notification may concern about 50 percent of the
transactions currently examined by the Authority. This will
increase to 70 percent, once the Authority’s new guidelines
on merger control, which significantly extend the scope of the
simplified procedure, enter into force.
Kramer Levin’s EU-Competition Team in Paris will be glad to answer any further questions.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
