The French Competition Authority (“Autorité”) has launched a public consultation to assess the effectiveness of its informal guidance framework, introduced in May 2024, which enables stakeholders to seek guidance on the compatibility of sustainability initiatives with competition law.
Sustainability constitutes a key priority in the Autorité’s 2025–2026 roadmap. The Autorité has adopted a balanced approach by enforcing competition rules against anticompetitive conduct that is particularly harmful from a sustainability perspective, while also using its advisory powers to assist stakeholders in navigating competition law issues arising from the ecological and environmental transition.
Under the framework, undertakings, professional associations and non-governmental organisations pursuing sustainability projects may request informal guidance from the Autorité regarding the competition law assessment of their initiatives. To date, the Autorité has issued five guidance letters addressing a broad range of sustainability-related initiatives, including environmental footprint methodologies, collective financing of agro-ecological transition costs, carbon footprint data-sharing platforms, deposit-return schemes for food packaging and voluntary sustainability commitments in the retail sector.
Following two years of implementation, the Autorité has initiated a public consultation, open until 31 July 2026, to gather feedback from all stakeholders, irrespective of whether they have previously used the tool. The Autorité has indicated that responses will be treated anonymously, will not be published individually and will not prejudice respondents in any manner.
(Autorité de la concurrence– 03.06.2026)
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