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Antitrust, Competition & Trade

The CMS Antitrust, Competition and Trade (ACT) group in France is part of the fully integrated CMS global team, one of the largest specialist competition and trade teams in the world. More than 225 CMS experts advise clients in more than 40 countries worldwide on all ACT matters. In France, our practice is run by three specialist partners and supported by a dozen lawyers. We are organised to cover the entire field of competition law, at national and European level. Our experts are therefore able to offer you personalised support, for specific questions or broader assignments.

Due to our size and very wide footprint, we can deal with all ACT matters irrespective of their geographic dimension. Where necessary, we cooperate with long established contacts from our wider network of “best friends” law firms everywhere in the world.

We are specialists across the full range of Antitrust, Competition and Trade matters. We have expert sub-groups specialising in specific areas within the wider competition and trade field, e.g., for State aid and FDI/Foreign investment screening. We are also well-known as experts in various sectors of the economy. Our renowned sector specialisation encompasses automotive, consumer products/FMCG, construction, digital economy, energy/oil & gas, life sciences, telecommunications/media, and transport to name but a few.

Our clients range from many very large multinationals who frequently use our team as their ACT law firm of choice, to public entities at all levels and a high number of medium-sized companies; we work for both public and private operators as well.
We hold a renowned annual EU competition law conference which has become a feature in the Brussels calendar.  We put out regular case law updates on European and international competition and trade developments on our Law Now service.  Our monthly EU law webinars are attended by in-house counsels from around the world.  And our group is steered, not just by a management committee of partners but also by an active associates’ group that keeps us innovating to serve clients.

Legal 500 EMEA 2023 - Tier 3

With offices based in Paris and Lyon, CMS Francis Lefebvre has a broad practice covering merger control, competition litigation, state aid, distribution law and EU regulatory matters.

"A highlight of CMS Francis Lefebvre’s competition practice is its strength in distribution law, with distribution expert Nathalie Pétrignet recently handling litigation in this space and Denis Redon gaining FCA clearance for acquisitions of distribution companies. The team covers merger notifications before the French and other European authorities and represents clients in litigation, including acting for Paris Saint Germain in an appeal against a sanction and bringing a follow-on damages action after an FCA cartel fine. EU law specialist Claire Vannini handles state aid issues. Olivier Leroy assists with competition issues during commercial negotiations"

We cover every area of Antitrust, Competition and Trade law

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Abuse of dominance and economic dependence
Competitive conduct of companies with a strong market position is subject to increasing scrutiny and may lead to unwanted regulatory intervention, hig
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Competition and cartel investigations
Companies should be alive to the possibility of investigations and fines for anti-competitive behaviour. We defend our clients in cartel and other reg
Compliance
We provide day to day advice in all competition law matters to help clients avoid any conflicts with competition laws. We work closely with our expert
Digital markets
CMS is widely recognised as a leader in providing legal advice to clients from the digital and technology markets. We help companies avoid regulatory
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Foreign investment control
With offices in Europe, Asia, Africa and South America, our broad footprint combined with a very wide network of long-established “best friends&
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Foreign subsidies control
The EU has decided to extend the state aid control to the support of businesses provided by non-EU governments. Following the recent publication of th
General EU law, free movement of goods, services, and capital
With our highly specialised expertise in general European law, we help companies defend their commercial interests in all matters of general EU law, i
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Horizontal agreements
Our specialists’ expertise covers the full range of horizontal cooperation or coordination between companies including joint ventures, specialis
Merger Control
We have a long and extensive track record of advising clients on merger control requirements and representing them in merger control proceedings. Each
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Private enforcement
The CMS team acts for claimants and defendants in all competition-related private enforcement matters. Our extensive experience across many cases give
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Regulatory
Companies in regulated industries are under constant scrutiny over anti-competitive behaviour. With our in-depth sector specific competition law exper
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State aid and EU subsidies
State aid is a constantly developing field of law. The EU and its Member States and many other governments outside the EU have introduced or are about
Trade law and sanctions
In an increasingly challenging international business world and demanding regulatory framework, we help companies to remain compliant and keep supply
Unfair trading practices (UTP) & Restrictive Competition Practices
We are at the forefront of advising clients in the field of unfair trading practices, which is a relatively new field of law in many countries but has
Vertical agreements
We give clients confidence in their relationships with suppliers, resellers, and customers, online and offline. By reviewing their distribution system

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27/03/2024
LEGAL 500 EMEA 2024
The 2024 edition of the Legal 500 EMEA guide is out. We would particularly like to thank our clients for putting their trust in us! Our law firm’s rankings in France France 1 en Tier 1 : The Regions 7...
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