France’s Antitrust Regulator Grows Merger Unit

Anne-Sophie Delhaise and Géraldine Rousset are joining Sara Darley, deputy to Etienne Chantrel, Head of the Merger Unit. Jérôme Vidal, who was until now Deputy to the Head of the Merger Unit is joining the legal department of the Autorité. He will shortly after take up function in the European affairs sector.

Anne-Sophie Delhaise holds a Master’s degree in law – English law from the Université de Paris II Assas and a Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University (Christ Church College). In 2002, she obtained a post-graduate degree (DEA) in European Union law at the Université de Paris II. In 2004, she obtained a Professional Lawyer’s Certificate (Certificat d’aptitude à la profession d’avocat – CAPA) before joining Wilhelm & Associés as  an associate where she mainly worked on merger control cases and anticompetitive behaviors. An advisor for European and Institutional affairs at the office of the President of the Autorité de la concurrence since 2015, she participated in the work of the European competition network, led and monitored the participation of the Autorité in the framework of interministerial processes (preliminary rulings, legislative work in Europe), among other missions. She was in charge of the drafting and discussion process regarding the ECN+ directive for the Autorité, and of its implementation.

A graduate from the  Institut d’Etudes politiques of Bordeaux (Institute for political studies), Géraldine Rousset joined the Ecole nationale de la concurrence, de la consommation et de la répression des fraudes (National school for competition, consumer affairs and fraud control) in 2006. When she left the school in 2007, she became an editor (‘rédactrice’) in charge of national mergers at the « bureau des concentrations et des aides d’Etat » (Merger and state aid bureau). In 2009, she then joins the Autorité de la concurrence as a case officer in the merger unit where she handled cases in the transport sector (SNCF/Novatrans, SNCF/Keolis), alcohol sector  (Cofepp/Quartier Français Spiritueux) or the distribution sector (Point P/Brossette). A case officer on competition cases since 2013, she worked in particular in the agricultural sector by handling different requests for opinion (fruits and vegetables, fishing quotas and implementation of competition rules in the agricultural sector for instance) and litigation proceedings (in the sugar beet sector among others). She also took part ponctually in merger control investigations in the LPG sector and in the low- and medium-price homeware and general merchandise retail sector.

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