French Commercial code
In forceI. - The Autorité de la concurrence shall decide on the merger within twenty-five working days from the date of receipt of the complete notification.
II. - The parties to the transaction may undertake to take measures designed in particular to remedy, where appropriate, the anti-competitive effects of the transaction either when the transaction is notified or at any time before the expiry of the period of twenty-five working days from the date of receipt of the complete notification, as long as the decision provided for in I has not been taken.
If commitments are received by the Competition Authority, the period referred to in I is extended by fifteen working days.
The Competition Authority may suspend the period referred to in I of this Article where the notifying parties have failed to inform it as soon as it arises of a new fact, which should have been notified if it had occurred prior to a notification within the meaning of Article L. 430-3, or have failed to provide it with all or part of the information requested within the time limit set, or where third parties have failed to provide it with the information requested, for reasons attributable to the notifying parties. The period shall resume as soon as the cause that justified the suspension has disappeared.
In the event of particular necessity, such as the finalisation of the commitments mentioned in the previous paragraph, the parties may ask the Autorité de la concurrence to suspend the deadlines for examining the transaction for up to fifteen working days.
III. - The Autorité de la concurrence may:
-either find, in a reasoned decision, that the transaction notified to it does not fall within the scope defined by Articles L. 430-1 and L. 430-2 ;
-or authorise the transaction, possibly making such authorisation subject, by reasoned decision, to the effective fulfilment of the commitments entered into by the parties.
-or, if it considers that there are serious doubts of harm to competition, initiate an in-depth examination under the conditions provided for in Article L. 430-6.
IV. - If the Autorité de la concurrence does not take any of the three decisions provided for in III within the period referred to in I, which may be extended pursuant to II, it shall inform the Minister responsible for the economy.The transaction shall be deemed to have been the subject of an authorisation decision at the end of the period opened to the Minister responsible for the economy by I of Article L. 430-7-1.
