Interim measures by the Autorité de la Concurrence: history repeats itself after IMS Health

Pablo Ibañez Colomo (Chilling Competition)

Last week’s decision by the Autorité de la Concurrence is remarkable for several reasons, in particular because it provides for interim measures and it is about exploitative conduct. In that sense, it is an excellent example of what the new competition law will bring.

Traditional competition law was reluctant to engage with practices involving the administration of complex, prescriptive remedies (such as the redesign of a product or the determination of the terms and conditions under which firms are to deal with rivals and/or customers).

The decision reveals how much things are changing. As summarised in the picture above, the Autorité does not hesitate to mandate that Google set up a framework for its negotiations with press publishers and their remuneration.

At the same time, the decision feels like a déjà vu. When reading it, I could not avoid being reminded of the interim measures adopted by the Commission in IMS Health back in 2001 (and the subsequent developments before the then Court of First Instance)…

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