Our actions are aimed at detecting, sanctioning and preventing possible infringements, in order to encourage innovation, fair prices and better quality, for the benefit of consumers, businesses and the economy.
Anticompetitive agreements: tangible damage for consumers
Anticompetitive agreements between companies – whether on price fixing, market sharing or production limitation – lead to artificial price rises. Several economic studies highlight the scale of the effects: in Europe, anticompetitive practices result in average price increases of 17%, while the median overcharge of international cartels has been estimated at 30%2.
In addition to the direct impact on consumer purchasing power, these practices restrict choice and reduce the quality of products and services, in the absence of the competitive pressure needed to drive innovation. Tackling anticompetitive practices is therefore crucial to ensuring a market where consumers can truly benefit from the full advantages of competition.
The fine imposed in 2024 on anticompetitive agreements on prices and fare conditions for inter-island air routes in the French and international Caribbean illustrates the unjustified price hikes that consumers can face.
In a joint plan, the two operators in the area aimed to coordinate their pricing strategy and artificially reduce the number of flights by sharing slots and synchronising flight schedules.
This scheme restricted competition and led to a sharp increase in ticket prices of 30% to 80% depending on the route (Decision 24-D-10 of 4 December 2024).
Anticompetitive practices: a threat to companies and competitiveness
Anticompetitive practices often benefit only a small number of players, but penalise the economy as a whole, disadvantaging companies that respect competition and hindering the emergence of new entrants, which are crucial for maintaining a dynamic market. In 2024, for example, the Autorité fined the main manufacturers of household appliances sold in France for anticompetitive practices. The practices had devastating effects, resulting in the disappearance or takeover of 95% of online distributors offering competitive prices (Decision 24-D-11 of 19 December 2024).
The effects of anticompetitive practices extend beyond the infringers’ direct competitors. The companies and services affected by the practices also suffer increases in their costs (raw materials, components, services, etc.), weakening their competitiveness and penalising the entire production chain.
By protecting inefficient companies and preventing new players from entering the market, anticompetitive practices hinder innovation and the modernisation of economic sectors.
A high cost for taxpayers and public finances
Anticompetitive practices not only harm private players, but also public finances. When they affect public procurement (construction, transport, services, etc.), they result in additional costs for the State and local and regional public authorities, which pay artificially inflated prices for services. These increases weigh heavily on public budgets, limiting investment in infrastructure and essential services. By tackling these abuses, the Autorité protects the efficiency of public spending and ensures optimal management of collective resources.
In 2024, for example, the Autorité fined 11 companies for cartel practices in the pre-cast concrete products sector, distorting competition in calls for tender issued by construction companies. Although the practices mainly concerned private calls for tender, in a number of cases, the sites for which the concrete products were intended were financed by local and regional public authorities, thus affecting projects financed by public funds (Decision 24-D-06 of 21 May 2024).
Various detection channels
The Autorité has a proactive policy for detecting anticompetitive behaviour, relying in particular on information provided by the Directorate General for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) network, as well as on its whistleblower system. It regularly conducts a large number of dawn raids in a variety of sectors, as was the case in 2024 in:
- energy cable distribution in the French overseas territories (Press release of 31 January 2024);
- medical biology (Press release of 15 March 2024);
- the manufacture and distribution of explosives for civil uses and blasting and drilling for quarries and public works (Press release of 17 May 2024);
- agricultural inputs (Press release of 27 November 2024).
Lastly, the Autorité has a powerful tool for destabilising cartels: the leniency procedure, which encourages undertakings to report anticompetitive practices and speeds up investigation procedures. Under the leniency programme, undertakings that cooperate actively with the Autorité can receive immunity from fines, with full immunity for the first undertaking to report the practices and partial immunity for the subsequent undertakings (See the dedicated area on the Autorité website).
In Europe, anticompetitive practices cause average price increases of
1 Moreau, F. and L. Panon (May 2022). “Macroeconomic Effects of Market Structure Disto!tions: Evidence from French Cartels”, IMF Working Paper.
2 Connor, John M. (27 April 2010). Price Fixing Overcharges: Revised 2nd Edition.
