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In France, the institutional care sector for the aging population moved from a “captive” market to a “competitive” market from the 1980s and 1990s onward.It is therefore important to understand the reasons that led to this change and to question how competitive practices are nowadays materializing between the three main sectors that make up this market, i.e., the public and private non-profit sectors—the historical actors—and the private commercial sector. The article focuses on the two major institutional categories of accommodation for aging people: “résidences autonomie,” for those who are autonomous; and institutions for dependent elderly people (EHPAD), for those with decreasing autonomy or who are very dependent.