French Commercial code
In forceI. - The Autorité de la concurrence may, in respect of matters falling within its remit and after prior information of the Minister responsible for the economy, communicate the information or documents that it holds or that it collects, at their request, to the European Commission or to the authorities of other States exercising similar powers, at their request, subject to reciprocity, and provided that the competent foreign authority is subject to professional secrecy with the same guarantees as in France.
The Autorité de la concurrence may, under the same conditions, in accordance with the same procedures and subject to the same penalties as those laid down for the performance of its mission, conduct or request the Minister responsible for the economy to conduct investigations, at the request of foreign authorities exercising similar powers, subject to reciprocity.
The obligation of professional secrecy does not prevent the competition authorities from communicating information or documents that they hold or that they collect, at their request, to the European Commission and to the authorities of other States exercising similar powers and subject to the same obligations of professional secrecy.
Assistance requested by a foreign authority exercising similar powers for the conduct of investigations or the transmission of information held or gathered by the Competition Authority shall be refused by the latter where execution of the request is likely to undermine French sovereignty, security, essential economic interests or public policy or where criminal proceedings have already been initiated in France on the basis of the same facts and against the same persons, or where they have already been sanctioned by a final decision for the same facts.
The competition authorities, insofar as their respective competences are concerned, may use information or documents transmitted to them under the same conditions by the European Commission or the authorities of other Member States exercising similar competences.
The Competition Authority may, for the implementation of this Article, conclude agreements organising its relations with the authorities of other States exercising similar competences. These agreements shall be approved by the Autorité de la concurrence under the conditions set out in Article L. 463-7. They are published in the Official Journal.
II. - In implementing the competition rules laid down in Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the competition authorities shall apply the provisions of Council Regulation No. 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 101 and 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, with the exception of the provisions of the first five paragraphs of I of this Article.
For the application of the provisions of Article 11(4) of this Regulation, the Competition Authority shall send the European Commission a summary of the case together with a document setting out the intended course of action, which may be the statement of objections or the report referred to in l'article L. 463-2. It may make these same documents available to the other competition authorities of the Member States of the European Union.
