Antitrust dawn raids—unannounced inspections led by competition authorities around the world—have seen an uptick since mid-2021, particularly in Europe. This comes after surprise investigations had been suspended for over a year during the pandemic.

The European Commission conducts “dawn raids” of businesses it suspects have broken competition rules. It can carry out these inspections without a judicial warrant and can decide to open them ex officio (i.e., absent any complaint or leniency application).

These surprise inspections—which can last days—interfere with the privacy rights of companies and their staff and carry high risks, as companies must cooperate. Raids must be carried out only when based on substantiated evidence; the inspections cannot simply be a ‘fishing expedition’ for the regulators.

The highly experienced members of our Antitrust & Competition Dawn Raid team, led by partner Nathalie Jalabert-Doury (Paris), editor of an acclaimed guide for in-house counsels on the topic, will have you fully prepared before, during, and after regulators conduct a dawn raid. We also have developed the Mayer Brown Dawn Raid app to help you reach a member of our team immediately if a raid is occurring and walk you through initial steps to take when regulators first appear.

A dawn raid can be a stressful experience, calling for immediate guidance across multiple jurisdictions. Nathalie led a deeply experienced team in the development of Mayer Brown’s Dawn Raid App, which guides you through the crucial first steps if you are the target of a dawn raid.

The app includes guidance from 19 jurisdictions, with key features such as:

• A first-hour actions checklist
• Direct access to Mayer Brown lawyers with a single click
• Deeper information and guidance across multiple jurisdictions around the world
• The ability to reach out to our partners in other practices in fields where dawn raids can also take place: data protection, sanctions, tax and anti-corruption

The app is available for download now for both iPhone and Android users. You can also access the web-based version of the app and view a training video.

The app is accessible free of charge to pre-approved clients and contacts. If interested in accessing the app, please send an email to ServiceDesk@mayerbrown.com with (1) your name; (2) company/association name; and (3) domain to be added (ex. @company.com). A member of the Firm’s mobile apps team will assist with adding requested clients to the approved list.

Learn more about Mayer Brown's Antitrust & Competition capabilities.