The Paris Court of Appeal in its June 6, 2013 Decision1 upheld in its entirety the French Competition Authority Decision n° 12-D-02 of January 12, 2012 fining the Géfil trade association and ten consulting firms in the leisure, culture and tourism engineering sector a total amount of 660,700 euros for having issued, between 2002 and 2010, instructions to the profession to use “fair prices” to avoid “dumping” and “price wars”. These instructions were found to have been used as a benchmark for price quotations filed by consulting firms in response to calls for tenders.
Only the Géfil and Deloitte Conseil appealed the French Competition Authority’s decision.
The Paris Court of Appeal confirmed that the issuance by the trade association of “fair price” instructions was a “per se” object restriction whose purpose was to block competitively-determined prices. The Paris Court of Appeal indicated in addition that the Géfil was involved in a “price watching” policy to ascertain that the prices charged matched those set in the instructions.
The Court confirmed the fines imposed by the French Competition Authority, that is, EUR 15,000 for the Gefil and EUR 510,000 for Deloitte Conseil.
