The Autorité de la concurrence publishes its opinion of 23 July 2024 on the draft decree defining the mechanism for collecting statistical information from lawyers

At the request of the French government, the Autorité de la concurrence issued an opinion on 23 July 2024 on a draft decree (supplemented by a draft ministerial order) on integrating lawyers into a mechanism for collecting economic data from certain legal professions for the purpose of setting their regulated rates.

In particular, the Autorité noted that expanding the data collection mechanism provided for in Article A. 444-203 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) to include lawyers should only concern lawyers that provide representation or postulation (the procedural requirement in French law for parties to be represented by a lawyer registered with the bar of the relevant appeal court for certain types of proceedings) services, regularly and on a fee-paying basis.

Moreover, while recognising the value of integrating, for all the legal professions concerned, economic data on the activity of branch offices into the data collection mechanism, the Autorité recommended that an impact assessment should be conducted in order to evaluate the feasibility of such a reform.

The decree and order adopted, respectively, on 18 June 2025 and 3 November 2025 follow the recommendations made by the Autorité. Accordingly, data will only be collected from lawyers that have performed at least five postulation services subject to regulated fees and branch offices will not be integrated into the mechanism.