French Commercial code
In forceI. - Where a merger is the subject of an in-depth review, the Competition Authority shall take a decision within sixty-five working days of the opening of the review.
II. - After being informed of the opening of an in-depth review pursuant to the last paragraph of III of Article L. 430-5, the parties may propose commitments likely to remedy the anti-competitive effects of the transaction. Where commitments or amendments to commitments already proposed are sent to the Competition Authority less than twenty working days before the end of the period referred to in I, the period shall expire twenty working days after their receipt, up to a maximum of eighty-five working days from the opening of the in-depth review.
In the event of a special need, such as finalising the commitments mentioned in the previous paragraph, the parties may ask the Autorité de la concurrence to suspend the time limits for examining the transaction by up to twenty working days. These deadlines may also be suspended at the initiative of the Autorité de la concurrence if the notifying parties have failed to inform it of a new fact as soon as it arises or to provide it with all or part of the information requested within the deadline, or if third parties have failed to provide it with the information requested, for reasons attributable to the notifying parties. In this case, the time limit shall resume as soon as the cause that justified its suspension has disappeared.
III. - The Autorité de la concurrence may, by reasoned decision:
-either prohibit the merger and enjoin, where appropriate, the parties to take any measure likely to restore sufficient competition;
-or authorise the merger, enjoining the parties to take any measure likely to ensure sufficient competition or requiring them to comply with requirements likely to make a sufficient contribution to economic progress to offset the harm to competition.
The injunctions and prescriptions referred to in the two preceding paragraphs are binding regardless of any contractual clauses that may have been entered into by the parties.
The draft decision is sent to the interested parties, who are given a reasonable period of time to submit their observations.
IV. - If the Autorité de la concurrence does not intend to take any of the decisions provided for in III, it shall authorise the transaction by means of a reasoned decision.Authorisation may be subject to the effective fulfilment of the commitments entered into by the notifying parties.
V. - If none of the decisions provided for in III and IV has been taken within the period referred to in I, which may be extended pursuant to II, the Autorité de la concurrence 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 II of Article L. 430-7-1.
The Autorité de la concurrence shall inform the minister responsible for the economy of the decision.
