COMPETITION • FRENCH LAW • PROCEDURE
The Competition Authority’s power to determine the classification of offenses allows it to combine the examination of several cases. Thus, when it is seized successively by different parties of similar applications, it can join the cases either at the Statement of Objections stage, or at the report stage. It does in fact seem preferable to examine practices having the same object or effect, found in identical or related markets at the same time.
The joinder of proceedings does not affect the rights of the defense, provided that the particular nature of each of the practices being prosecuted is taken into account. On the other hand, joint proceedings are not possible when the referrals are based on different grounds and concern, in part, undertakings that were not previously involved, even if the various introductory documents relate to one and the same market.
The Competition Authority may also separate proceedings, in particular when the cases concern rights belonging to entirely separate entities that have their own commercial policies. The separation leads to a new classification of the evidence between the two sets of proceedings, which is not such as to affect the rights of the defense.
