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