Reinstatement of deadlines for responding to statements of objections and reports

In a press release dated 27 March 2020, the Autorité de la concurrence stated that “the two-month period available to companies to submit, in application of Article L. 463-2 of the French Commercial Code, their comments in response to a statement of objections or a report, is suspended from 17 March 2020. This period will resume from the day after the publication of the decree which will lift the travel restrictions initially established by Decree No. 2020-260 of 16 March 2020.”

Decree No. 2020-423 of 14 April 2020, supplementing Decree No. 2020-293 of 23 March 2020 setting out general measures to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic in the context of the state of health emergency, established that the travel restrictions would be lifted on 11 May 2020.

Accordingly, the period set out in Article L. 463-2 of the French Commercial Code, suspended since 17 March 2020, resumes from 12 May 2020.

Where justified by exceptional circumstances, Article L. 463-2 makes provision for companies to request an additional period of up to one month to submit their comments.