Leniency

The Autorité de la concurrence may grant full or partial exemption from financial penalties to an undertaking or an association of undertakings (together, “an undertaking”) which has, with others, implemented an anticompetitive agreement between competitors within the meaning of Article L. 420-1 of the French commercial code or Article 101 of the Treaty on the functioning of the EU, and files for leniency.

To that effect, the undertaking must contribute to establishing the reality of the prohibited practice and to identifying its perpetrators, by providing all useful information.

When an undertaking files a leniency application with the European Commission, because it appears to be best placed to deal with the practices at stake, it may, in parallel, file a summary leniency application with the Autorité de la concurrence (i.e., the French competition authority). This summary application allows the undertaking, in the event that the European Commission ultimately does not open an investigation into the practices at stake, to safeguard its status as a leniency applicant before the Autorité de la concurrence and thus to limit the risk of financial penalties that could be imposed by the latter.