The French government fined Randstad €4.5 million (US$5.2 million) for noncompliance with commitments made in 2009, according to an announcement today by the Autorité de la concurrence, the French competition authority.

Back in 2009, the French government had issued a €94.4 million fine to Adecco, ManpowerGroup and Vedior (acquired by Randstad in a deal that closed in 2008) for colluding in order to limit competition over “key account” clients between March 2003 and November 2004.

Vedior did not contest the charges and agreed to several changes. And the Autorité de la concurrence noted the company was in compliance regarding steps to train and manage staff as well as strengthen the role of corporate legal director and the hiring of a legal director for competition. However, the agency said the company had not complied with plans to reduce “market transparency,” which was aimed at partitioning the information between the tree main players in the market, Adecco, ManpowerGroup and Randstad.

At issue were tools, including an “e-flex tool” that enables client firms to manage their temporary workers. The agency said the company had not complied with a commitment to market e-flex as an independent subsidiary with its own staff for a period of more than one year.

“The autorité considers that the non-compliance with commitments constitutes in itself a serious practice, especially as the offending parties had proposed the commitments at their own initiative,” according to the agency. “It noted that, in this case, the breach had been committed barely two months after the entry into force of the commitments and that Randstad had not immediately heeded the warning issued by the Deputy General Rapporteur of the Autorité.”

Randstad responded to the announcement.

“The Randstad group takes note of the French Competition Authority’s decision rendered regarding the implementation of the ambitious and innovative commitments it undertook back in 2009,” according to the company. “By its decision, the French Competition Authority recognizes that the vast majority of these commitments have been fully complied with. The only criticism uttered by the French Competition Authority is very narrow in scope as it only concerns certain aspects of one out of 19 commitments. The alleged infringement is moreover of a purely formalistic nature and has had no practical consequences. Randstad will now consider the impact of this decision and reserves its right to appeal the decision.”

The company continued, “the Randstad group recalls that it is committed to the highest standards of antitrust compliance, which it implements across all countries where it has operations.”