From 2021, the competition authority will focus on the digital market with the implementation of new sensors on the French economy - in real time. Their objective will be to understand the market and to anticipate more quickly the upheavals around different actors, tools ...

The competition authority will set up a specialized service comprising four people, for its beginnings and with the intention of expanding it in the near future. To accelerate the authority will need detection tools on algorithms and Big Data. These are essential for examining the pricing mechanisms on the internet.

The current service is already proactive with record sanctions against Apple (1.2 billion for its distribution system for electronic products). Google is no slouch, with three decisions affecting it. There are also some outstanding cases in the area of e-advertising, one of which is expected to arrive before the end of the year.

With the decisions concerning Google and Apple, while the competition authority was willing to send a strong message to other players, it was also willing to go deeper into the digital market. This desire is growing stronger as the Covid-19 crisis reinforces the urgency of the proposal to better control acquisitions below the current notification thresholds. Currently, when an actor buys a fledgling business or a business whose value does not reflect turnover, the operation spirals out of control when it can strengthen the position of an acquirer in its main market. This desire is materialized to put in place mechanisms so as not to end up with a situation where half the planet is united in an architecture with the trio of Facebook / WhatsApp / Instagram.

To ensure its controls, the competition authority will need to rely on strong tools but also on the law. Thus, an adaptation of competition law is desired by the authority in order to be better equipped to deal with digital giants. The authority wants a better assessment of the risks before they are carried out, with in particular a study on fintechs and the banking sector aimed at analyzing the consequences of the arrival of large platforms in the payments sector. If their market shares are low today, the power of their environments can change the situation very quickly. Cloud services and blockchain technology are also closely scrutinized for their importance and competitive implications and make them the next topic on the stack.