The AdC Now Investigating Free Competition
- The French Competition Authority will soon study the way the competition works in the e commerce sector and focus on some categories of products and services. It will:
- Assess the intensity of competitive pressure exerted by the e commerce sector on the traditional retail channel, with regard to potential discrepancies in prices;
- Identity factors likely to hinder competitive pressure that the e-commerce can exert on the traditional retail channel:
- Market power likely to be gained by online retailers,
- Commercial relations between players, manufacturers or retail channels,
- Behaviour of the intermediaries on the online products distribution chain: e payment markets, logistics or price comparison services.
- According to the figures reported by the e-commerce federation (FEVAD), this sector represented some 31 billion euros in 2010 for individual customers, or four times more than five years before and 24% more than in 2009. This significant growth is due to the increasing amount spent by an increasing number of e-buyers (+7.3% transactions per buyer between 2009 and 2010).
- The e-commerce sector is committed to address the Authority’s requirements.