LThe government finally had to abandon the lifting of the ban on selling at a loss for fuels. Paradoxically, this exception would have mainly concerned large oil groups and hypermarkets, which would have thus strengthened their market power at the expense of their competitors – whereas the ban on selling at a loss aims precisely to avoid this. Beyond its absurdity, this waltz-hesitation reveals a specific French relationship between the State and businesses in matters of competition.
During the development of large companies in transport and industry in the 19th centurye century, there has been no equivalent in France to the Sherman Act, the law which has governed competition in the United States since 1890. A pioneer in this area on an international scale, this law fights against coalitions and abuse of dominant position ; it was supplemented, in 1914, by the Clayton Act, which made it possible to act against mergers that could lead to such positions.
It was in his name that Standard Oil owned by Rockefeller, reputed to be the most powerful man in the United States, was dismantled in 1911. In fact, the objective of this legislation is as political as it is economic: in the American myth of prosperity resulting from a democracy of pioneers and small farmers, distrust of the political influence of large corporations is at least as stronger than the fear of their economic weight.
The French tradition is different. The Ancien Régime controlled access to the market by granting the trader or broker a privilege, which was also a shared monopoly. The Revolution abolished corporations but maintained separate commercial law which allowed a form of co-management between merchants and the State through chambers of commerce, and even more so through commercial courts.
This right does not regulate competition, but penalizes hoarding (article 419 of the old penal code). As the word suggests, it is firstly a matter of fighting against the risks of shortages and price manipulation by false rumors which affect local markets and the prices of essential goods. The logic is more that of a moral economy than of a theoretical market.
Strengthening large companies
However, this article will remain the only legal tool in the face of the rise of large companies during industrialization. The most important of them will certainly be regulated in an ad hoc manner: thus, railways benefit from the support of the State for their financing but must accept its control over prices, control which will prove to be more more restrictive well before their nationalization in 1937. In other sectors, the concerns of businesses are relayed and discussed in Parliament. Bosses, small and even large, want freedom but also protection from the State against violent economic shocks.
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