France raises merger control thresholds for the first time in over twenty years

On 14 and 15 April 2026, the French Parliament adopted a Simplification Bill (Projet de loi de simplification de la vie économique) raising the French merger control notification thresholds. The reform aims to reduce the administrative burden on businesses while enabling a more efficient allocation of the French Competition Authority's ("FCA") resources.

1. Why have the merger control thresholds been raised?

The general merger control thresholds have been in place since 2004, and the retail-specific thresholds since 2008. Neither has ever been updated. Over that period, cumulative inflation approached 40% and nominal GDP grew by 65%, with the result that the practical scope of the notification obligation expanded well beyond its original intent.

This has translated into a 59% increase in the volume of transactions reviewed by the FCA between 2010 and 2025, a significant proportion of which raised no substantive competition concerns. The revised thresholds are designed to reflect current economic conditions and to concentrate regulatory resources on transactions that genuinely warrant scrutiny.

2. What are the new merger control thresholds?

Under Article 8 of the Bill, the thresholds set out in Article L. 430-2 of the French Commercial Code will be revised as follows.

No change in the merger control thresholds in the French overseas territories

The thresholds applicable to transactions in the French overseas territories (départements d'Outre-mer), Mayotte, Wallis and Futuna, and the overseas collectivities of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saint Martin, and Saint Barthélemy remain unchanged. The FCA will therefore continue to exercise heightened oversight in these territories, where market concentration and the high cost of living remain pressing concerns.

3. What does this mean in practice?

The revised thresholds are expected to remove the notification obligation for approximately 20-30% of the transactions currently caught by the existing regime. Based on the 2018-2022 reference period, around 800 companies (many of them SMEs) would have been relieved of the filing requirement under the new thresholds.

Key practical takeaways for companies and their advisers include:

• Fewer mandatory filings: transactions that previously triggered a merger control notification may no longer do so, reducing both costs and M&A timelines.
• Relief for SMEs: smaller businesses involved in acquisitions falling below the new thresholds stand to benefit most from the reform.
• Assess now: companies with upcoming transactions should determine without delay whether the revised thresholds apply, bearing in mind that the applicable regime will be determined by the date of notification, not the date of signing or closing.

4. When do the new thresholds take effect?

Subject to validation by the Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel) and promulgation by the President of the Republic, the new thresholds will enter into force on the first day of the fourth month following publication of the Bill in the Journal officiel. The revised thresholds will apply to all transactions notified from that date onwards.

5. What is next?

The FCA is actively developing a call-in mechanism, which would allow it to review transactions falling below the notification thresholds but nonetheless raising competition concerns. Until this mechanism is in place, companies should not assume that falling below the new thresholds eliminates all regulatory risk.

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