PARIS, April 16, 2026 — France’s Autorité de la concurrence has welcomed the adoption of legislation raising merger control notification thresholds, a reform aimed at reducing administrative burdens on businesses and allowing the regulator to focus its resources on the most significant transactions.
The changes are included in the Economic Life Simplification Bill, approved by both the National Assembly and the Senate on April 14 and 15.
Threshold reform after years of economic change
Article 8 of the new law increases the turnover thresholds that trigger mandatory merger notifications to the competition authority, though the rules applicable to France’s overseas territories remain unchanged.
The reform follows several years of growing merger activity and economic changes that have effectively lowered the relative level of the existing thresholds, which have remained largely unchanged since their introduction in 2004, with additional sector-specific thresholds added in 2008.
According to the authority, cumulative inflation in France had reached nearly 40% by the end of 2023, while nominal GDP had grown by around 65%, leading to higher average company turnover and a sharp rise in transactions requiring review.
Between 2010 and 2025, the number of merger notifications submitted to the regulator increased by 59%, meaning the authority has had to devote more resources to reviewing deals that often pose little risk to competition.
Reduced administrative burden for companies
Under the revised thresholds, the Autorité estimates that 20–30% of transactions currently requiring notification will no longer need to be filed.
Had the new thresholds been in place between 2018 and 2022, roughly 800 companies—many of them small and medium-sized enterprises—would have been exempt from filing merger notifications.
The authority said the reform strikes a balance between easing compliance obligations for companies and maintaining robust merger control to protect competition and consumers.
Continued scrutiny of sensitive markets
The regulator emphasised that the specific thresholds applicable to France’s overseas territories—including Mayotte, Wallis and Futuna, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Martin and Saint Barthelemy—will remain unchanged.
Authorities said this reflects the need for particularly careful oversight in those markets, where high concentration levels and elevated living costs require stronger competition scrutiny.
Focus on more complex mergers
With fewer low-risk transactions requiring review, the Autorité expects to devote greater resources to complex mergers, potentially anti-competitive acquisitions, and large transactions referred by the European Commission.
At the same time, the authority said it is continuing work on introducing a targeted “call-in” power, which would allow it to review potentially problematic deals that fall below the new notification thresholds while limiting legal uncertainty for businesses.
Entry into force pending constitutional review
The revised thresholds will take effect once the legislation is validated by the Constitutional Council and promulgated by the president.
If approved, the new rules will apply from the first day of the fourth month following publication of the law, covering merger transactions notified to the competition authority from that date onward.
