Leila Benalia has been appointed Head of the Autorité de la concurrence’s Regulated Professions Unit

Leila Benalia has been appointed Deputy General Rapporteur, in charge of the Autorité de la concurrence’s Regulated Professions Unit, starting 1 November 2022. She replaces Thomas Piquereau, who held the position since the unit was created in 2016. The Autorité takes this opportunity to warmly thank him and commend him for the quality of the work accomplished under his responsibility.

The Regulated Professions Unit was set up in 2015 to contribute to the new regulatory missions entrusted to the Autorité under the Law of 6 August 2015 for Growth, Activity and Equal Economic Opportunities, known as the “Macron Law". It notably conducts investigations for opinions issued under Articles L. 462-4-1, L. 462-4-2, L. 444-7 and L. 462-1-1 of the French Commercial Code (Code de commerce) on the free establishment of certain ministerial officers (notaries, commissioners of justice, and lawyers at the French Administrative Supreme Court (Conseil d’Etat) and Supreme Court (Cour de cassation), and changes to the regulated fees of six regulated legal professions[1]. It also examines consultation and litigation cases concerning the regulated professions in the broader sense (surveyors, architects, property managers, among others professions).

Biographical note

Leila Benalia holds a Professional Master's Degree (Master II) in “Administration and Public Policies” from the Panthéon Assas II university. In 2005, she joined the DGCCRF (Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control) as a redactor within the Anticompetitive Practices Unit and then within the Transports Unit.

In 2012, she then joined the DIRECCTE (Regional Directorate for Businesses, Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs, Labour and Employment) in Centre-Val de Loire as head of the Competition Investigations Unit. During that time, she had the opportunity to contribute to the regulation of significant markets in the region, such as cosmetics, transport or specialized mass retail sectors.

In 2014, Leila Benalia came back to the DGCCRF as a deputy Head of the Financial Services and Regulated Professions Unit. She contributed in particular to the reform of the legal regulated professions in the framework of the development of the “Macron Law”. Since 2018, Leila Benalia had been Head of the Legal Support Unit, responsible for administrative litigation and judicial litigation pertaining to dawn raids conducted in accordance with the French Consumer code (Code de la consummation) and the French Commercial Code. In that capacity, she was also a representative of the French government before the Autorité de la concurrence.

[1] The six regulated legal professions concerned are: notaries, court bailiffs, commercial court registrars, court-appointed administrators, court-appointed liquidators, commissioners of justice and lawyers at the French Administrative Supreme Court (Conseil d’Etat) and Supreme Court (Cour de cassation).