France: Court of Appeal affirms fine for price fixing in the leisure and tourism sector

In a decision of June 6, 2013, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld a decision of the French Competition Authority fining the Géfil trade association and ten consulting firms in the leisure, culture and tourism engineering sector a total amount of EUR 660.700 for having issued instructions to use “fair prices” and 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.The Court of Appeal confirmed that the “fair price” instructions by the trade association were “per se” object restrictions the purpose of which was to block competitively-determined price. The court therefore confirmed the fines imposed by the French Competition Authority.Case details: CA Paris (Ch. 5-7), June 6, 2013, n° 2012/02945, Le Géfil e.a.

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