French Competition Authority: Competition Policy And Digital Issues

In a Feb. 19, 2020 memorandum, the French Competition Authority contributed to the debate on competition policy in response to new challenges posed by the development of the digital economy.

The French Competition Authority made several reflections and proposals regarding both antitrust and merger control issues.

In order to better identify anti-competitive practices in digital markets, the French Competition Authority suggested adapting certain existing concepts. The standard of rules applicable to the essential facility concept could be made more flexible or renewed, for example, by qualifying certain assets as indispensable (incontournables).

In addition, the notion of dominant position could be extended to include certain strong players, such as structuring digital platforms (plateformes numériques structurantes) defined as companies that provide online intermediation services in order to exchange, buy or sell goods, content or services and that have