COMPETITION • FRENCH LAW • RESTRICTIVE AGREEMENTS
An agreement in competition law implies the direct or indirect acknowledgement of the subjective element that characterizes mutual consent: joint decision-making, a commitment to apply a common policy, to achieve an objective, or to adopt a certain behavior. The fact of contemplating the reaching of an agreement or conducting talks is not a priori capable of characterizing an agreement. Indeed, a draft agreement which have not been signed, or even a contract offer, are not sufficient to demonstrate the existence of an agreement. An attempt to reach an agreement to share the market and to limit the market share of a competitor, not followed by action to that effect, is also not sufficient to characterize an unlawful agreement.
