Read the Summary of the 2019 Annual Report

Professional bodies have existed in different forms since ancient times. At different times in history, professional bodies have been able to contribute to the structuring of professions or activities, from former merchant guilds to professional orders, including business unions in the IT or digital sector. The Autorité's interest in the activity of professional bodies goes back a long way. It is a fact that the functioning of professional bodies may be conducive to anticompetitive activities, in particular price agreements, anticompetitive exchanges of information or concerted actions aimed at slowing the development of competition.

The Autorité has therefore decided to help economic players anticipate this development, by dedicating a specific study to professional bodies.

Its purpose is to analyse, in light of decision-making practice and case law, behaviours of professional bodies that may be contrary to competition law but also to recall all the essential pro-competitive actions that they often put into place. The study is thus intended to be a "turnkey" tool to promote compliance procedures on the part of the professional bodies and of their members. I hope that this work will be useful to all and will, in the future, prevent and limit the "competitive risk" associated with the participation of companies in professional bodies and unions, and will constitute a vector of good practices.

The growth of e-commerce is profoundly changing distribution. The physical distribution model is facing strong competition from the growth of online sales, which may be the result of “pure play” online retailers and strategies using alternative distribution channels. Sales conditions in physical stores are also evolving, increasingly incorporating digital technologies (use of smartphones, tablets, augmented technologies, etc.), to the point that there is now a “phygital” (physical and digital) model. Finally, these developments raise many questions for the Autorité de la concurrence, sometimes leading it to redefine market boundaries, focus on restrictions on Internet sales, and increase the new power held by online platforms, especially structuring platforms that hold strategic or preeminent positions.

In view of the prominent place that the distribution sector occupies in the French economy, the Autorité has sought to provide an overview of these various issues and explain its vision so businesses have a clear understanding of them.

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The expansion of global digital platforms, the development of new services based on digital technology (algorithms, cloud, artificial intelligence and blockchain) and the disruption of certain sectors of the traditional economy by new types of operators (online sales for brick and mortar retail, online reservation or sharing platforms for the hotel industry, etc.) are confronting competition authorities with new challenges in the implementation of competition law.

The Autorité publishes its contribution to the debate on competition policy and digital issues.

In 2018, together with La Documentation française, the Autorité created a new collection, Les Essentiels, to further understanding of competition. After an initial study on loyalty rebates (2018), it is publishing a new work in February 2020 on behavioural remedies, which reviews use of the tool in the practice of the Autorité de la concurrence.

The Autorité de la concurrence and the Bundeskartellamt studied the potential competitive risks that may be associated with the algorithms. They studied in depth the concept of algorithm as well as the different types and areas of application.

On 12 September 2019, Isabelle de Silva took part in the annual conference organised by the Fordham University. On this occasion, she presented her views on the future of competition law.

The @Echelle event dedicated to the presentation of the report issued to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on « Unlocking digital competition » by M. Philip Marsden,one of the five co-authors of the report, took place on 5 September 2019 at the Autorité de la concurrence. Philip Marsden, Isabelle de Silva, President of the Autorité de la concurrence and Henri Piffaut, Vice-President, were discussing the recommendations of the report.

On 16 July the Autorité de la concurrence hosted an @Echelle event on the report submitted to the European Commission on competition policy for the digital era by Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, one of the three authors of the report. The discussion brought together Yves-Alexandre de Montjoye, Isabelle de Silva, President of the Autorité de la concurrence and Henri Piffaut, Vice-President.