As required under the SREN Law, the Autorité de la concurrence has submitted to the French parliament and government a report on its work in the area of self-preferencing

Following the publication of Opinion 23-A-08 of 29 June 2023 on competition in the cloud sector, the enactment on 22 May 2024 of the French law to secure and regulate the digital space (SREN), on which the French Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications requested an opinion from the Autorité, and the public consultation launched on 4 June 2025, the Autorité de la concurrence has submitted to the French parliament and government, in accordance with Article 26 of the SREN Law, a report on its work in the area of self-preferencing.

After recalling that self-preferencing practices as defined in Article L. 442-12 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) are not prohibited as such and must have an anticompetitive object or effect in order to be examined by the Autorité, the Autorité notes that it has not received any reports from the French Minister for Digital Affairs or any other legal entity concerned on conduct falling within the scope of the said article.

However, the Autorité remains particularly vigilant and actively engaged on this crucial issue.

At the European level, the work of the Autorité aligns closely with that of other competition authorities, with which the Autorité collaborates through the European Competition Network (ECN). Following the publication of its opinion on the competitive functioning of the generative artificial intelligence (AI) sector, the Autorité encouraged the European Commission to pay particular attention to the development of services giving access to generative AI models within cloud environments and to assess whether providers of such services could be designated as gatekeepers for those services under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). On 18 November 2025, the Commission announced that it had opened market investigations on cloud computing services under the DMA.

At the French level, the Autorité launched a public consultation in 2025 to gather information on potential behaviour by companies that could constitute anticompetitive self-preferencing practices. It will analyse any leads arising from the contributions received as part of the consultation and, where applicable, exercise its powers by using the tools available under Title II, Book IV of the French Commercial Code.

Lastly, the Autorité considers itself to be fully equipped to address any concerns raised in the sector, both by conducting sector inquiries and by using the traditional tools of competition law, and regards the procedural and legislative framework established by the French Commercial Code and the SREN Law to be sufficient to examine self-preferencing practices in the cloud sector.