Our Curious Amalgam Podcast

Can They Really Say That? Product Denigration Under French Antitrust Law

January 11, 2021

London partner Matthew Hall co-hosted the January 11 episode of the ABA’s Our Curious Amalgam podcast on the topic “#96 Can They Really Say That? Product Denigration Under French Antitrust Law.”

At its most basic, marketing often consists of simply explaining a product’s qualities relative to its alternatives. Can this go too far and amount to a competition law infringement? Isabelle de Silva, President of the French Competition Authority (FCA), and Bill Batchelor join John Roberti and Matthew Hall to discuss product denigration by reference to the FCA’s cases in the pharma sector. Listen to this episode to learn more about these cases and how to draw the line between illegal disparagement of rivals and factual communication of differences.

Our Curious Amalgam explores topics in antitrust, competition, consumer protection, data protection, and privacy law around the world with leading experts in those areas. It is an amalgam because it is a group of diverse topics all in one place. It is curious because it gets the experts and asks them in-depth questions.