Benoît Cœuré presents the annual report and the institution’s outlook
On Tuesday 11 July, the Autorité presented its annual report to the press. Benoît Cœuré, President of the Autorité de la concurrence, reviewed the major cases of 2022 and set out the priorities for action in the months ahead.
Annual report 2022
Over the past year, the Autorité de la concurrence issued 292 opinions and decisions and handed down €467.9 million in penalties. With regard to merger control, it set a new record with 284 notifications of transactions. 257 mergers were examined, including emblematic cases such as TF1-M6 and But-Conforama. In terms of litigation and consultation, the Autorité was active in many sectors of the economy, with a particular focus on the digital, energy and healthcare sectors. In particular, it issued commitments proposed by Meta and Google and sanctioned a number of companies for abusing their dominant position, including EDF, Gaz de Bordeaux and Essilor.
The Autorité looks back, beyond its results, at the major issues and challenges ahead. Fully committed to defending purchasing power, the Autorité intends to preserve its powers of investigation and control so that it can continue to punish anticompetitive behaviour. Numerous ongoing investigations (dairy supplies, leather goods, distribution of train tickets, supplies to the agricultural sector, etc.) show that consumer products will be more than ever at the heart of its action.
It continues to position itself as an “idea incubator” responsible for identifying sources of purchasing power for households and proposing opportunities to strengthen businesses. Over the past few months, it has initiated a number of market inquiries into the cloud, transport and electric vehicle charging infrastructure sectors.