Press release from the ALTEN group following the decision by the Autorité de la Concurrence (French competition Authority)

On 11 June 2025, the Autorité de la concurrence (French competition Authority) announced that it had fined four companies operating in the engineering, technology consulting and IT services sectors for two alleged ‘bilateral agreements’ between these companies alone on human resources issues.

With regard to ALTEN, the decision sanctions an alleged ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ with Ausy, which, according to former Ausy executives, was intended to prohibit each other from poaching ‘business managers’ (sales staff).

Such allegations are simply incompatible with ALTEN’s model, which consists of recruiting young engineers trained as ‘business managers’ at the ALTEN university, rather than recruiting business managers employed by competitors.

For information, this decision, which we consider unfounded, covers the period from November 2007 to September 2016 and bases the penalty on the total payroll of business managers in France, which is disconnected from the reality of the alleged facts and totally disproportionate.

ALTEN contests the Autorité de la concurrence’s (French competition Authority) decision in fact and in law and has decided to appeal to the Paris Court of Appeal to have it overturned.