All publications by Pauline Kubat

On June 27, 2017, the European Commission imposed a €2.42 billion fine on Google for abusing its dominant position by favoring its own comparison shopping service over competing comparison shopping services.

Google and its parent company Alphabet appealed against this decision before the General Court of the European Union. The Court, in a recent ruling dated November 10, 2021, upheld the European Commission’s decision.

Ordinance No. 2021-1247 published on September 29, 2021 transposes into French consumer law European Directives (EU) 2019/770 and (EU) 2019/771 of May 20, 2019 and introduces a new legal guarantee of conformity specific to digital contents and services.

The new provisions will apply as from January 1, 2022.

The French Competition Authority published on July 30, 2021 a notice on the method for determining fines in relation to anticompetitive practices, which repeals and replaces the previous notice dated May 16, 2011.

This new notice, based on case law and the decisions rendered by the French Competition Authority in the last ten years, draws the consequences of the transposition of the ECN+ Directive aimed at increasing the effectiveness of competition rules within the European Union.

In decision No. n°21-D-11 dated June 7, 2021, the Autorité de la concurrence (French Competition Authority) imposed a 220 million euros fine on Google.

The reason: Google had engaged into discriminatory practices aimed at favoring its own adverting technologies to the detriment of the other players of the sector.

The matter was brought before the French Competition Authority by several newspaper publishers (News Corp. Inc., the Figaro group and the Rossel La Voix group) adversely affected by the practices of the digital giant.

Pauline Kubat was interviewed by Tribune de Lyon in connection with an article on ransomware attacks published on June 17, 2021.

For several months now, ransomware cyberattacks have been on the rise. Recent attacks echoed by the media show that all types of organizations, whether private or public, can be affected, whatever their size.

In this context, this article offers a reminder of the best practices to implement in order to limit the risks and to know how to react effectively in case of an attack.