Three-party Chats on Mergers

14 April 2026 – Business secrecy in merger control

The fourth edition of the “Three-party Chats on Mergers”, entitled “Business secrecy in merger control: Legal and practical challenges for parties and third parties before, during and after the review by the Autorité de la concurrence”, explored the legal and practical issues surrounding the protection of sensitive information throughout merger control proceedings.

Watch the replay (in French)

With the participation of:

• the Mergers Unit of the Autorité de la concurrence;
• Étienne Chantrel, EightAdvisory;
• Anne-Laure-Hélène des Ylouses, Fieldfisher;
• three master’s programmes at Université Paris Dauphine-PSL, affiliated with the CR2D law research center, under the supervision of Georges Decocq.

29 January 2026 – The suspensive effect of merger control

The third edition of the “Three-party Chats on Mergers” focused on derogation from the suspensive effect of merger control, taking a legal, operational and forward-looking approach.

With the participation of:

• the Mergers Unit of the Autorité de la concurrence;
• A&O Shearman (event partner);
• students from the “Business Law & Management” double degree at the Faculty of Law, Catholic University of Lille;
• Émilie Berthier, Legal Operations Director, Auchan.

19 January 2026 – The suspensive effect of merger control

The second edition of the “Three-party Chats on Mergers” explored the suspensive effect of merger control, a central aspect of merger law and its practical application.

With the participation of:

• the Mergers Unit of the Autorité de la concurrence;
• Maître Hélène Coulibaly Le Gac, partner at BBLM, and Maître Julia Coste, lawyer at BBLM;
• students from the Distribution and Competition Law master’s at Aix-Marseille University, under the direction of Professor D. Bosco.

27 May 2025 – The status and role of the monitoring trustee in merger control

The first edition of the “Three-party Chats on Mergers” was held on 27 May at the Linklaters office in Paris, with students from the Business Law master’s (Competition and Distribution) at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, under the direction of Professor Catherine Prieto.

The seminar brought together Jérôme Vidal, Head of the Mergers Unit, and Nicolas Zacharie, lawyer at Linklaters, to discuss “The status and role of the monitoring trustee in merger control”.

During the seminar, the Autorité de la concurrence announced that several requests made by respondents to the public consultation launched on 14 March 2025 could be implemented in the coming months, without any legislative changes to the texts in force:

• the possibility of appointing a monitoring trustee upon submission of the commitments;
• an explanation or reasons for a decision to refuse the approval of a monitoring trustee;
• the systematic organisation of a meeting, at the start of the monitoring of the commitments, with the approved monitoring trustee;
• a systematically formalised procedure for the discharge of the monitoring trustee at the end of its mandate;
• the creation of a dedicated page on the Autorité website, presenting the monitoring trustees.

Watch the replay (in French)