France's competition authority publishes a 3,700-page opinion on the AI agent market — finds OpenAI, Google and Anthropic together hold more than 84%, after regulators built and deployed their own agents to study it
The Autorité de la concurrence released a 3,700-page advisory opinion on the AI agent market, concluding that OpenAI, Google and Anthropic collectively control north of 84% of it. The inquiry, opened in January 2026, took an unusually hands-on approach: regulators built and ran their own agents rather than relying solely on submissions from the firms under examination.
The methodology is the story. Competition authorities normally assess a market through document requests, market-participant submissions and economic modelling. Building and deploying your own agents to measure the market from the inside is a different instrument — it produces evidence the incumbents did not choose to hand over, and it is very hard to argue with on the record.
The 84% figure lands at an awkward moment given the AI Act's enforcement powers activating days later. Concentration findings do not themselves create obligations, but they shape how a regulator exercises discretion once it has standing. The Commission gaining enforcement power against general-purpose providers on 2 August means a documented concentration finding now sits next to a live enforcement mechanism.
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