Advised Chronopost/Exapaq During Freight Sector Investigation

In December 2015, the French Competition Authority ("FCA") fined 20 courier companies a combined €672 million ($739 million or £488 million) for fixing price increases for parcel delivery services in France for six years. The information-sharing process, which occurred between September 2004 and September 2010, took place primarily during meetings held at a professional trade union body (TLF) which was also fined. The FCA also sanctioned 15 of the 20 companies, as well as TLF for the coordination of price increases to compensate for the increase in Brent fuel prices between May 2004 and January 2006 (decision n° 15-D-19 of 15 December 2015).

Compass Lexecon advised Chronopost/Exapaq, a subsidiary of Groupe La Poste, one of the companies participating in the infringement. We conducted an economic analysis of the price impact of the investigated practices and analyzed the value of sales. In July 2018, the Paris Court of Appeal confirmed most of the findings of the FCA, but reduced the amounts of fines imposed on several companies, including fine reductions for Chronopost (€6.75 million) under the French settlement procedure.

The Compass Lexecon team included David Sevy, Elena Zoido, Patricia Lorenzo, Jeremiah Juts, Guillaume Duquesne, Thibaut De Bernard, Jaime Coronado, and Anastasia Tseomashko.