Autorité de la concurrence

The Autorité de la concurrence (English: Competition Authority) is France's national competition regulator. Its predecessor, the Competition Council was established in the 1950s. The Competition Authority is an independent administrative authority (AAI) French responsible for fight against anti-competitive practices and study the functioning of markets. It aims to ensure respect for the law linked "to the defense of a sufficient market competition" 1.

Although it is not considered a court, it pronounced injunctions, makes decisions, and if necessary, imposes penalties, subject to appeal to the Court of Appeal of Paris and the Court of Cassation. It also issues opinions.

The main sources of law of its action are the Commercial Code (Book IV) and Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Its headquarters are in Paris, at 11 Rue de l'Echelle (some services such as the concentrations or the economy are at 6 avenue de l'Opéra)

Created by a decree of 9 August 1953 in the form of a commission attached to the Minister for the Economy, the Competition Council, as its name officially by the order of December 1, 1986 has become, since January 13, 2009 and according to the law of 4 August 2008 on modernization of the economy, the Competition Authority. His powers have been gradually extended, including the law of 15 March 2001 on new economic regulations (NRE Act) to meet the control objective of the proper competitive functioning of the market.

In the early 1950s, in an economic context and directed nationalized since the Great Depression 2, as well as agreements with professional way since the Second World War with the Vichy regime and the German planning of the French economy the government attention focuses on anti-competitive practices. The persistence of corporatist practices, after the Vichy regime, helping to change the vision of the government on the effects of horizontal agreements between competitors 3.

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