The French Competition Authority (“Autorité”) has, for the first time, imposed fines under Article L.420-1 of the French Commercial Code in relation to a transaction falling below the mandatory merger notification thresholds. The transaction concerned Drapkoc’s acquisition of sole control over Point Net in the sector for the treatment, collection and transport of potentially infectious medical waste in La Réunion. Following the transaction and the subsequent combination of Point Net with Drapkoc’s subsidiary Ecolys, Ecostrill became the sole operator in the medical waste treatment market and reached a market share of almost 80% in the collection and transport market.
As the transaction did not meet the EU or French merger notification thresholds, it had not been subject to ex ante merger control. Relying on the Court of Justice of the European Union’s Towercast judgment of 16 March 2023, the Autorité considered that below-threshold transactions may nevertheless be reviewed ex post under the rules prohibiting anticompetitive practices. It found that the share purchase agreement signed by the parties constituted sufficient evidence of a meeting of minds within the meaning of Article L.420-1 of the French Commercial Code.
While the Autorité noted the serious competitive effects of the transaction and the parties’ failure to take measures to mitigate them, it imposed a fine of €1 on each of the buyer and the seller, taking into account that this was the first application of Article L.420-1 of the French Commercial Code to a below-threshold merger.
(Autorité de la concurrence – 22.10.2026)
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