Opinion 26-A-02 of February 18, 2026

On 13 May 2024, the Autorité de la concurrence (hereinafter the “Autorité”) decided to start inquiries ex officio to analyse the competitive functioning of the online video content creation sector in France, with a view to issuing an opinion.

Online video content creation involves the production of video material and its distribution to the public, usually through an online platform that hosts the content and acts as an intermediary between content creators, audiences and, where relevant, advertisers.

The sector has grown rapidly over the past 15 years and is now an integral part of the French audiovisual industry. Creators have become more professionalised, while the video format has expanded significantly, both in terms of platform offering and audience consumption. The sector’s value chain has become more structured, as has the applicable legal framework, notably through the adoption of the European Digital Markets Act^[1] (DMA), the European Digital Services Act^[2] (DSA) and the French Influencers Act (Loi influenceurs)^[3], in addition to the general body of law governing audiovisual production.

^[1] Regulation (EU) 2022/1925 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair contracts in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act).

^[2] Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 October 2022 on a Single Market for Digital Services and amending Directive 2000/31/EC (Digital Services Act).

^[3] French law 2023-451 of 9 June 2023 to regulate commercial influence and combat abuses by influencers on social media, Official Journal of the French Republic (Journal Officiel de la République Française), no. 0133 of 10 June 2023, text no. 1.